Abstract:

Corrosion of materials is an important factor, since it leads to their degradation, possibly resulting in early failure of technical systems, posing risks to environment and human life, and generally causing high economic losses. Consequently, the existence of quality corrosion education will have a strong impact on reliability and sustainability of future technologies, safety, economics, and public health. Assessing the impact of corrosion education at the university level is hence crucial. Here, we describe insights from three corrosion professors in three different programs and countries. We also highlight our plans to design and conduct a longitudinal corrosion education study focusing on i) optimizing corrosion education in terms of didactic efficiency, and ii) assessing effective educational approaches. Corrosion is a complex process involving chemical, biological, and physical degradation mechanisms requiring knowledge of materials science, biology, mechanical engineering and different chemical disciplines. Most commonly, corrosion education includes theoretical knowledge on electrochemistry, thermodynamics, kinetics, material classes, and some selected corrosion types. Corrosion knowledge, without context, makes it difficult to analyze and understand real corrosion cases.

Therefore, in addition to the theoretical basics, we utilize the following course modules in our classes:
1) Story telling of real corrosion cases, often accompanied with corroded parts and discussions with the students. This is a vital part of all our corrosion courses throughout its duration, allowing the students to gradually improve their abilities to analyze and understand a real corrosion case and connect it to the learned concepts;
2) Actual and outdoor corrosion case sightseeing tours, whereby students are encouraged to find and document their own corrosion cases in their environment;
3) Field trips to industry sites and/or industrial guest lectures, which serve to increase the relevance of the taught material and improve the students’ work readiness.

We also describe a method of course evaluation, based on real corrosion cases and concept knowledge checks. As a conclusion, the main aim of this paper is to call attention to the importance of students’ self-learning based on progressive improvements supported by relevant and real-world corrosion scenarios.

Keywords:

Concept-based education, corrosion education, experiential learning.