Student case study creation for the sustainable side of material science

Abstract

Case studies have long been used in law and in medical education and are essentially a form of storytelling with an educational message. The case is an account of an activity, event or problem that contains a real or imaginary situation and incorporates the intricacies you may encounter in the real world. Engineering faculty have begun looking towards these methods as a powerful pedagogical technique for teaching. Recent NSF funding on a TUES Type 2 is allowing the authors to create cases with a focus on sustainability. Why sustainability one may ask, "The shift to more sustainable technologies will mean significantly reducing the amount of energy and materials we use in producing our goods and services while decreasing risks to humans and the environment" (Bridge to a Sustainable Future, Clinton, White House, 2005). Many of the best cases are based on contemporary, and often controversial, science problems that students encounter in the news; the use of cases in the classroom makes science relevant and research shows that relevance promotes learning. Constructivism adopts the belief that students learn most effectively by constructing their own knowledge and refer to learning as conceptual change (Vygotsky,1962; von Glaserfield, 1987, 1995). That being said the present work utilizes undergraduate students working on consultant teams to create the cases as a part of their Honors Contract. XXX University has a system in place for Honors students to gain honors credit for courses in agreement with the instructor. The National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science at the University at Buffalo is utilized as a primary resource and its purpose is to "promote the development and dissemination of materials and practices for case teaching in the sciences." The paper will first discuss the use of an Honors contract to facilitate creation of cases, then a discussion of case study theory, a sharing of the cases created by the students and finally reflections of the students and faculty. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2013.