For over 4000 years Materials has been important to mankind. Today Materials links Physics, Chemistry, Geo and Bio sciences, and Environmental science and engineering. This is why Materials can help solve the big problems of the future. It is important to get across to students both the conventional knowledge of Materials and its role in modern engineering practice. Some of the ways of doing this education are described in this paper. Understanding material properties based on the underlying physics is brought out using charts created in CES EduPack software. New developments dealing with materials and environment provide the eco-audit and eco-informed materials selection functions to understand problems of environmental impact. The motive here is to supplement the more traditional materials teaching approach by the innovative method which can scan broadly the materials world.
