Educational experience based on inverse engineering to explain the embrittlement of materials. Method based on real case studies

Abstract

[EN] This study describes an experienced teaching method in the subject of Materials Science, which is studied in the framework of different degrees at the Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain. The main objective of this method was to motivate and stimulate the student's interest through to study relevant and real consequences of materials failures. The method was conducted by analysing real examples of aeronautics failures that occurred in the aerospace and aeronautical industry. The case studies described in this experience were the Challenger shuttle and the comet plane catastrophic failures. In order to verify the validity of the teaching experience, the students' perception compared to the traditional teaching method was taken into account. On the other hand, the positive results were seen through the evaluation proposed in the curriculum. Collaterally, the ethical sense and good practice is commented and worked on, a subject that is very important and sometimes little worked on in our classrooms. It can be concluded that the use of reverse engineering is of high interest to students and allows some basic concepts of materials science to be explained in a more global way than when they are traditionally explained in the master class.