Materials Processing - A Piece of Cake!

This eight-page instructor guide provides an activity demonstrating the "processing-structure-property relationship" concept in materials engineering through baking cakes. By baking and comparing cakes, students observe how processing impacts characteristics such as microstructure, porosity, surface texture, and defects. This activity relates materials engineering concepts to a familiar real-life example. The guide also highlights this activity's potential to build rapport and set the tone that "laboratories are not simply laborious efforts with minimal payoff." This activity was designed for college classrooms, but can be adjusted for other instructional levels.

This instructor guide includes the following sections: Mode of Presentation, Objectives, Equipment and Supplies, Curriculum Overview, Procedure, and Evaluation of the Activity.