The Development and Evaluation of New Teaching Materials for Learning about Crystal Lattice Structures Using Springs Made of Ti-Ni Shape Memory Alloy

Abstract

In order to understand the crystal structure of metals, we developed teaching materials that help explain that the cause of shape changes in shape memory alloys are due to changes in their crystal structure. The developed teaching materials were subsequently used in classroom practice, and the usefulness of the teaching materials was examined. From our analysis of the results, the following three points became clear: 1) Students understood crystal structures more deeply by picking up crystal lattice models and observing them from various angles. 2) Students thought that shape memory alloys were useful as teaching materials because they encountered new phenomena that stimulated their interest and obtained new perspectives for thinking about such shape memory alloys. 3) By using the crystal lattice model, students came to realize that a solid understanding of the crystal structure is important for learning the basic principles of chemistry. These results suggest that the teaching materials developed in this study, which help convey to students that the cause of shape changes in shape memory alloys are due to changes in their crystal structure, are indeed useful for promoting the understanding of crystal structure.