This year’s Materials in STEM (M-STEM) event in Golden, Colorado offered educators and students a wide range of materials science hands-on, participative demonstrations, and powerful presentations from well-known experts. Hosted by the Colorado School of Mines and the Critical Materials Institute, the M-STEM workshops were filled with a mix of faculty, staff, and students from the school, as well as the same from out of town.
We have shared a number of photos on The National Resource Center for Materials Technology Education (MatEdU) Facebook page. MatEdU is a NSF-funded Center housed at Edmonds Community College.
The Monday keynote will be covered in greater depth in a separate post, but Dr. Iver Anderson’s talk on Climate Change, was well-attended, filled with current research findings, and prompted good discussion. Ames Laboratory scientist Dr. Anderson was recently inducted into the Michigan Tech Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) Academy of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering (MME). MatEdU shared about this prestigious award on Facebook.
Tuesday’s keynote, by Dr. Craig Brice, also captured attention due to his unique project of 3D printing a full Marvel Ironman suit out of titanium. On Monday, he led a short tour through the Mines lab and workshop where he showed behind-the-scenes details of that project where he partnered with Adam Savage, (known for the MythBusters television show) but now the host of a new television show that requested and joined forces with Dr. Brice to build the suit. Again, separate post to follow with photos and video.
Another lively portion on Day One was the Student Poster Session where students from Mines as well as TEAMM Network member students from Tennessee Tech University, presented their research projects to a panel of judges who moved through the large hall of poster exhibits over several hours. The TTU team won a Third Place award.
Here are the poster session winners:
Undergraduate
- Dalton Garrett, Nb and Prior Microstructure Effects on Induction Hardening Response of 1060 Steel
- William Schenken, Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Study of Sodium Guests in Silicon Clathrates
Graduate
- Isabella Mendoza, Using Parametric Equations as Inspiration for Dance Choreography
- Deborah McGott, Lightweight, flexible power via liftoff of thin film solar cells
- Ankit Gupta and Seymour Hasanov, TechBot – A Mobile Multitasking 3D Printer (TTU team) (follow the link for more photos on the project).
To give you a better idea of what you can learn at the M-STEM workshops, you can download the official 2019 M-STEM Workshop Agenda and Schedule. The original “Save the Date” AM News post is here. The sessions and keynotes each day covered topics, such as:
- Corrosion of Metals…more fun than rocket science!
- Integration of Workplace Competencies
- Helping Girls Choose STEM Careers
- Critical Materials Institute Classroom Toolkit
- Materials Classroom Labs
- Superhero Materials (Ironman presentation)
- Copper Mining and Environmental Recovery
- Meet Climate Change Challenges with Clean Energy Innovations
- Glassblowing
- Nano’s Role in Water Treatment & Filtration
- Beams & Bridges and Stress-strain Curves
- Designing Foods with Sugar
- Hydro Printing
In partnership with Edmonds Community College and the Colorado School of Mines, Critical Materials Institute, The STEM Guitar Building Project, Nano-Link, and Tennessee Tech were sponsors of the event. In addition, here are the exhibitors who shared materials and resources with attendees: FLATE – Florida Advanced Technological Education, ASM Materials Education Foundation, Critical Materials Institute (also sponsor), Nano-Link (also sponsor), and ATE Community.
You can read about Day Two here.