Schools and outreach

The demand for Materials graduates outstrips the supply, so it's always important to try to encourage more people to consider studying the subject at university.

Two school students during an Outreach visit
Off

At the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, it's obvious to us why the study of materials can be interesting and stimulating while remaining constantly relevant. That's why we participate in a number of different public engagement and outreach events, involving students and staff at all levels in showing the appeal of a further education in materials.

Schools and individuals can arrange to visit the department or see the department's stand at a variety of organised events. These include:

We also participate in a variety of Science Fairs, school visits and similar events, ranging from Key Stage 2 in schools to the University of the 3rd Age.

Educational resources

We run regular student projects, for undergraduates and postgraduates, to help in developing activities for education.

Materials - a SUBJECT that MATTERs

Materials - a subject that matters logo

Welcome to Materials- a SUBJECT that MATTERs! I am Chloe Skidmore, a fourth-year Materials Science and Engineering student at The University of Sheffield. 

‘Materials- a SUBJECT that MATTERs’ has been created over the course of my final academic year and forms the basis of my final year project, titled ‘Outreach for Materials Science and Engineering’, focusing on the topic of public engagement, supervised by Dr Julian Dean. 

Materials Monopoly

Materials Monopoly (detail)

We assisted in the creation of 'Materials Monopoly', and now coordinate its distribution to schools. 'Materials Monopoly' is a version of the iconic board game that's aimed at giving students an idea of the uses of different types of material, and how research develops their capability for different applications.

Designed by students from the Advanced Metallic Systems Centre of Doctoral Training, this unique version of Monopoly engages school children in engineering materials, replacing the iconic coloured streets around the board with differently priced materials used in science, engineering and manufacturing, and turning the train stations into facilities such as processing stations. Teachers can request a free copy (postage payable) here.


Chocolate breaking

Chocolate Impact Tester

We have developed educational resources around the use of chocolate to demonstrate material properties and behaviour, with our work published in journals for teachers:

Lucy B Parsons and Russell Goodall, “Testing the fracture behaviour of chocolate”, Physics Education 46 (2011) 50-56

This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication/published in Physics Education. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at doi:10.1088/0031-9120/46/1/006.

Julian Dean, Katrin Thomson, Lisa Hollands, Joanna Bates, Melvyn Carter, Colin Freeman, Plato Kapranos and Russell Goodall, “High-performance composite chocolate” Physics Education 48 (2013) 465-471

This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication/published in Physics Education. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at doi:10.1088/0031-9120/48/4/465.

Get in touch

We are always happy to hear from schools and organisations who may be interested in interacting with us. Please contact Amanda Southworth, Recruitment, Outreach and Student Engagement Co-ordinator, The Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

Top in the Russell Group

We are the top-ranked Russell Group university for Graduate Prospects in Materials Science and Engineering. (The Times Good University Guide 2020)

A global reputation

Sheffield is a research university with a global reputation for excellence. We're a member of the Russell Group: one of the 24 leading UK universities for research and teaching.