Developed in 2009 by Professor Kevin Jones (University of Florida) in collaboration with the Materials Research Society, the Impact of Materials on Society is an undergraduate course that explores the connections between the discovery of new materials such as ceramics, glass, concrete, metals, plastics, semiconductors etc. and the development of technologies and social structures worldwide. To see these connections, the course fuses basic concepts in materials science and engineering with perspectives and methods from across the humanities and social sciences.

This Instructor Guide is a companion to Impact of Materials in Society, a textbook developed at the University of Florida (UF) with support from the Materials Research Society, National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, and the UF Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere. This Instructor Guide augments the textbook with a guide to instruction, supplemental materials (including a downloadable course template), and in-development content for new modules.

Increasing Social Literacy In Future Innovators | Kevin Jones

During the 2020 TEDxUF speaker series, Kevin Jones spoke about IMOS and encouraged educators to equip engineering and non-engineering students with the tools needed to create socially responsible engineering solutions.

Want more innovation? Try connecting the dots between engineering and humanities | Kevin Jones, Sophia Acord, Susan Gillespie

Kevin Jones and collaborators Sophia Acord (sociologist, former Associate Director of the UF Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere) and Susan Gillespie (Professor, UF Department of Anthropology) also penned this article for The Conversation in 2015 describing the importance of the IMOS approach in producing innovations for society.