Educational Forum

On Monday afternoon, a special session will be convened for educators and all of those participants interested in Ceramics education. The topic for discussion will be: how should ceramics education fit into the materials science and engineering curriculum?

• Should ceramics be viewed as a distinct discipline?

• How can students be encouraged to pursue a career in ceramics?

• Can a ceramics sub-specialty co-exist with a general materials science curriculum?

The discussion will be led by Simone Peterson Hruda and a panel of educators (including Robert Snyder, OSU, Gary Fischman, UIC, Richard Riman, Rutgers, and Dunbar Birnie, Arizona) who will make short presentations on the following topics:

• Ceramics as a subdiscipline in an MSE department: the perspective of the department head.

• The perspective from a ceramic engineering department.

• How differences in size, history, faculty, and locality influence degree programs.

• The ABET perspective

The results of the discussion will be summarized for all conference participants by Peterson Hruda in the Tuesday evening session.