Understanding and Using Structural Concepts Tianjian Ji, Adrian Bell & Partha Mandal The University of Manchester 20 September 2012

Physical Models

Practical Examples

Website

What to do next? How to make better use of our website? How to stimulate students to learn by themselves with a greater interest? How to make the learning of structural concepts more effective? How to share the resource with other educational institutions more effectively?

Confucius quote: “Tell me and I’ll forget, show me and I may remember, (551–479 BC) “Tell me and I’ll forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I’ll understand.”

Educating Engineers for the 21st Century – RAE 2007

Coursework To create a piece of coursework that can: Enhance the sound understanding of relevant engineering fundamentals; Develop the ability to apply them in an innovative way Lead to solving practical problems; through involving students in hands-on activities

Observations/Assumptions Students have been taught structural concepts through several course units during their previous studies. Students have different levels of understanding of structural concepts. Students know little of the application of structural concepts in practice.

Coursework (1) Read through all the contents in the website, www.structuralconcepts.org Quick revision of what you have learned before Enhance your understanding through model demonstrations and practical examples Generate your own ideas to complete the coursework No submission for this part

Coursework (2) Study one of: Design/sketch/use a physical model that can demonstrate one structural concept, or Identify and describe one example, from either engineering practice or everyday life, in which one structural concept is used creatively, Using your understanding of theory creatively into an application

Coursework (3) Read the submissions provided by the other students and vote the best three. Your coursework will be compiled into a ‘book’. You can then learn from each other - further enhancing your understanding An enjoyable learning experience Vote for the best three, “X Factor” style.

Support to Students’ Learning Four one-hour lectures, three for helping to make a start and one for a summary. Cash prizes to the three best submissions. Costs for covering materials used for making models. Consultations to students’ ideas.

Lecture 1 Concepts for designing stiffer structures How textbook contents link with engineering practice and how structural concepts can effectively used to deal with engineering problems. How three structural concepts are abstracted from an equation taught in the first year.

Lecture 2 How and Why to Study Structural Concepts? Give a global view of studying and understanding structural concepts through using a number of examples Demonstrate the ways to investigate structural concepts and their applications

Lecture 3 Assignment of coursework and demonstration of previous students’ submissions Explain the coursework Provide a specification of the coursework Show good examples conducted by previous students

Lecture 4 Summary of the coursework submissions Give general feedback on the coursework submissions. Illustrate good submissions Announce the best three submissions voted by the students and give the prizes

Students’ Contributions Many models have been made by students. A web questionnaire and coursework questionnaire were designed by students Feedback from the students improved the quality and contents of the website, and the ways of delivering structural concepts

The coursework encourages you to explain concepts in a simple manner

The coursework promotes the observation of structural concepts in everyday life

The coursework motivates a greater interest in the subject of structures

The coursework acts as a basis for revision of previously taught material

The contents of the booklet are interesting

The booklet provides you with an effective way of learning

Addis Abebaw: Energy Exchange and Equilibrium

John Burwell: Self Supporting Bridge

Mingxi Lu: Equilibrium Analysis of the Structures in “Angry Birds” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pNokQe2-z8

The Third Prize Tensegrity – Kurilpa Bridge

The Second Prize Playstation 3 CD Release Mechanism

The First Prize The Lazy Bridge – Partial Self-Balancing

Further Work To make our existing website more a flexible learning and teaching resource for benefiting civil engineering students and lecturers in the UK and worldwide: Provide coursework specifications Provide good students’ submissions Provide all lecture notes (PPT files) A delivery seminar will be held at Manchester in May/June 2013

Acknowledgements For developing the website and contents Education Trust, IStructE University of Manchester For updating the website and creating a student centred learning environment Engineering Subject Centre at Loughborough For making a more flexible learning resource The Higher Education Academy