Integrating industry research in pedagogical practice: A case of teaching microbial corrosion in wet tropics

This chapter discusses how the issue of microbial corrosion can be incorporated in the Materials Engineering curriculum. Research in this field contributes to knowledge building in microstructural effect of corrosion, and development of advanced corrosion protection techniques, which aligns with the essence of Materials Science and Engineering. This chapter suggests an instructional approach where students undertake a project in which they produce a database summarizing the relationship between corrosion rate and factors as types of bacteria, functional genes, types of alloys, and welding procedures. The benefit of such approach is two-fold. First, discussion of this topic in the curriculum provides an opportunity to introduce approaches for efficient management of the current issues encountered in industry. Second, there is currently no comprehensive database on the microbial corrosion conditions. Additionally, this chapter provides some insights into the best instructional strategies for the efficient management of an online engineering course in higher education. � 2015, IGI Global. All rights reserved.