The purpose of this proposal is to complete the development of an active learning environment in the Chemistry of Materials course taken by all engineers at Rensselaer. This goal can be accomplished by the acquisition of a teaching optical microscope, table-top tensile machines, micro ohmmeters, pressure gages, temperature controllers, thermocouple readouts, and regulators. This equipment will enable us to develop hands-on experiments which we will use to teach the principles necessary for the Chemistry of Materials course. The Chemistry of Materials course is being taught in an interactive format with 15 teams of four students per class. The two 2-hour interactive sessions per week are broken up into modules. Each module begins with the presentation of a concept / principle by the faculty member. This presentation takes the form of a mini lecture by the instructor, or a demonstration, either "real time" or computer generated, or some combination of the two. Students are then given either a "team problem" exemplifying the principle just covered or a hands-on experience that provides a practical application of the principle. The problems or hands-on exercises are to be completed as a team with each member responsible for teaching to, or learning from the others on his/her team. In a two-hour session, two or three of these modules are covered. The course is taught in a multimedia room with a computer available to teach team of four students and the ability to project information from the computer onto a screen. The computers are used to access the World Wide Web (WWW), run multimedia software, and solve simple problems.
