Making science fun!
Jerry P. Byers | TLT President's Report October 2012
Together STLE and ASM International are getting students interested in science and mathematics.
ASM’s Materials Camp is designed to provide teachers with techniques and tools they can use to make technical subjects more appealing to their students. (Photo courtesy of Bruce Murgueitio)
SCIENCE CAN BE FUN! Unfortunately, too many students in the U.S. have never considered that science or mathematics could be interesting—let alone fun. In a recent comparison of academic performance in 57 countries, students in the U.S. ranked 17th in science and 24th in mathematics (The test probably didn’t even ask if the students knew the meaning of tribology).
Sadly, the number of students pursuing careers in science, engineering or mathematics has fallen to very low levels. Government and military leaders are concerned about the future generation and who will be there to operate our national defense systems.
Schools and organizations are now beginning to focus on this area of national weakness, and a special acronym was coined called STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Alternative magnet schools have been developed to concentrate on these critical subjects. However, many teachers don’t have the tools to teach subjects for which they themselves have not received adequate training.
ASM International, a major technical society serving the materials science field, and its affiliated ASM Materials Education Foundation, is taking the lead in helping educators become better prepared to teach STEM courses. ASM has developed a week-long Materials Camp program, where high school teachers receive a hands-on laboratory experience with metals, ceramics, hydrocarbons, polymers and composites. In addition, the teachers gain a greater appreciation for the importance of these materials to modern life, as well as conducting interesting and fun experiments they can use with students to explain complicated science concepts.
The advantage of these training camps for teachers is that the efforts are multiplied a hundred or a thousand times, as each teacher returns to instruct and inspire their own students. The ultimate goal is to increase the number of scientists and engineers in the U.S., and STLE is proud to partner with ASM in this effort.
In keeping with STLE’s mission statement: “To advance the science of tribology and the practice of lubrication engineering in order to foster innovation, improve the performance of equipment and products, conserve resources and protect the environment,” STLE Secretary Maureen Hunter of King Industries is chairing a committee that will develop an educational module dealing with tribology and lubrication for delivery at future teacher camps.
This past summer, STLE representatives, including volunteers from the Detroit Section, participated at a teacher’s camp on the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan. In addition, Dr. Hunter attended a teacher’s camp in New Jersey and was impressed not only with the program as a whole but also with the instructional materials that teachers could take back to their classrooms. One was a thick spiralbound book with hundreds of experiments that students could do in class. Another was an educational kit from NACE (National Association of Corrosion Engineers) about corrosion. The C-Kit, as it is called, included a voltmeter, metal specimens, a video, a booklet of six corrosion experiments with practical applications, and even an Inspector Protector comic book!
STLE is gathering ideas for a “tribology toolkit” featuring simple classroom experiments to help teachers and students better understand the principles of friction and wear. Also, during the STLE 2013 Annual Meeting in Detroit, the society is organizing a half-day minicamp for area high school students.
Our STEM committee would like to have five tribology or lubrication- related experiments ready to use at the Detroit minicamp. If you can help with either of these two projects, please e-mail Maureen at
mhunter@kingindustries.com or contact the STLE headquarters office.
We want students to learn that science is fun—and to know what a tribologist does!
Jerry Byers is manager of research and development for Cimcool Fluid Technology in Cincinnati. You can reach him at jerry_p_byers@cimcool.com.