Teaching: from practice to theory

Cognitive processes seem to be highly activated when curiosity intervenes as motivational energy in the classroom. This conclusion is reached after a teaching experience in a Metallurgy class, with students from a technical school with low interest in learning and studying. Unlike the traditional sequence of teaching materials in which crystalline and atomic models are studied from the literature to later arrive at a phase diagram; this experience begins directly in the laboratory with students doing cooling curves for the alloy of two metals. After this, students make metallographic specimens with the solidification obtained. This experience results in a research activity by which students observe a phenomenon, measure values, verify changes and transform two metals in a number of phases before they study the theory. In this way, students understand the theoretical explanation as a necessary element to further delve into the scientific activity as opposed to pre-established knowledge that is imposed on them. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.