This proposal provides support for an innovative education symposium at the 2013 Materials Research Society Spring Meeting in San Franciso, CA entitled "Towards a lab to classroom Initiative". Participants in this symposium will discuss challenges associated with bringing in sync the development of new research methodologies and an accelerated pace of new materials discoveries with slower evolving textbooks and curricula.
Recently, President Obama announced the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) and this program specifically champions the development of materials through the collaboration of computational science and experimental design. The marriage of these two requires researchers with cross-disciplinary skills, and this educational symposium 2013 Materials Research Society Spring Meeting in San Franciso will explore new methods for the training of future scientists and engineers for the MGI.
The main objective of the symposium was to bring together experts in academia, industry and government to explore the implications of the Materials Genome Initiative on education systems and policy with the goal of optimizing the discovery-to-commercialization process. Outcomes included educational reform efforts in the K-12, undergraduate and post-graduate areas as well out-of-the classroom educational initiatives. Topics included: Best practices towards the design of scientific-educational programs: from basic research to early education. Models for the assembly of scientific-education teams to execute a lab to textbook continuum. Parallelism with biomedical sciences: translational research towards the acceleration of "lab-to-classroom" Program design and evaluation strategies; application of the logic model and beyond. What should the Material Innovation Infrastructure look like? Equipping the next Generation Workforce- is there a paradigm shift required in education and industry Review of education curriculum to support in computo materials design. K-12 Education: inclusion of computer science, nanotechnology, quantum mechanics and relativity concepts throughout the curriculum "Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts and Core Ideas" with a special focus on "Scientific and Engineering Practices". Core ideas and approaches from Framework for 21st Century Learning. Impact of providing research experiences on the educational process: REU, RET, and beyond. Lessons learned from the Nanotechnology Initiative: bringing in the general public to the developmental framework. Anticipation of strategies to bring the general public into the equation: early dissemination of scientific findings. The role of the media on the dissemination of scientific findings. The aim of this session was to build upon the vision provided in the Materials Genome Initiative. Invited speakers were assembled representing relevant stakeholders with the goal of developing a more profound understanding of the building blocks needed for execution. Stakeholders in the Materials Genome Initiative ecosystem include funding agencies, universities, education experts, scientists, students, business experts, and the general public at large, among others. In particular, we discussed those aspects relevant to education towards a sustainable and inclusive Materials Genome Initiative. Findings indicate that the preparation of the next-generation materials workforce will call for increased computational abilities for which modifications to the existing curricula are needed. As one example, educational initiatives must be developed to make computational materials science a more pervasive discipline. Symposium speakers offered specific recommendations aiming at the revision of the undergraduate and K-12 curricula; including increased technological fluency and other 21st century skills. Another relevant finding, it was found pertinent to ponder the adequate discovery-to-text book time frame. Suitable funding platforms amenable to multidisciplinary, cross-national lab-to-market consortia were also discussed.
