从材料科学角度围绕孔隙问题浅谈如何教好《建筑材料》课程

Discussion on How to Improve the Teaching of “Building Materials” from the Perspective of Material Science and around the Issue of Porosity

摘要: 《建筑材料》作为建筑工程及其相关专业一门重要的专业基础课程，普遍被学生认为枯燥无味，需要死记硬背。再加上通常机械性灌输的教学模式，这些问题变得尤为突出。针对这一现象，结合材料科学的基本原理，把一些简单的底层逻辑引入到该门课程的教学中来，将有利于学生摆脱死记硬背的学习方法而掌握原理，这样既能更好地掌握应用常用的建筑材料，又具备拓展到新型建筑材料的能力。本文围绕材料的一个共性参数——“孔隙”，从其概念的引入、与其它性能的作用和关系到在实际工程问题中的应用三个层次来论述，由易到难，层层递进，不断加深学生对孔隙及其对其它性能影响规律的理解。本文引入的材料科学的基本原理和逻辑为《建筑材料》课程教学提供了新的思路，提高了学生学习该门课程的兴趣和掌握的程度。

Abstract: As an important specialized basic course for architectural engineering and its related subjects, “Building Materials” is generally considered by the students to be boring, requiring rote memorization, which is further exacerbated by the conventional “cramming” teaching method. To address this issue, based on the fundamental principles of material science, some simple underlying logic is introduced into the teaching of this course, to help the students to avoid the rote learning and master better the relevant principles. This will not only enable them to have sufficient knowledge about the commonly used building materials, but also enable them to apply it to deal with a newly developed building material. This paper presents discussions around a common parameter of materials, “porosity”, in three levels, from its concept introduction, to its classification, roles and relationships with other properties, to its use in practical engineering applications. Such a “from the easiest to the hardest” or “step by step” methodology, would make the students easily follow and understand better the relationships between porosity and other important physicochemical properties. Such a novel teaching strategy based on the fundamental principles and underlying logic of material science has been proven feasible and effective in the teaching of “Building Materials”, increasing significantly the students’ interest and engagement in this course study.