Your dishes, the windshields of cars, clay pots, fiber optics, spaceshuttle tiles, bricks in your house, diamonds, cement,and so much more are all ceramics. Ceramics are brittle and very strong. They have a variety of properties, but are usually not electrically or thermally conductive, which makes them insulators. They work well in compression (pushing down) like bricks, but are usually not strong in tension (pulling apart). They have ionic and covalent bonding. They usually have high stiffness, good resistance to corrosive environments, and lower fracture toughness than metals. With the exception of glasses, ceramics usually cannot be reshaped by the same forming methods as metals. A mixture of ceramic powders, water, and binder materials is frequently molded into the desired dimensions to form engineering products. Don't forget to take notes on your Why pick my Materials Class? handout.