Enhancing Students' Understanding Of Key Engineering Concepts Through The Use Of Civil Engineering Toys In The Classroom

Assisting students in developing a solid understanding of the many conceptual ideas presented in our undergraduate engineering courses is a significant task. In one key course, Mechanics of Materials, the abstract and sometimes intangible ideas of stress and strain, and what causes them, continue to be a great source of confusion for our engineering students. To effectively teach these conceptual ideas, we need to instruct the students with a variety of teaching styles and tools. One set of tools that enhance theoretical models is visual demonstrations. Providing visual demonstrations along with the theoretical models creates an environment for improved student understanding. The present paper presents a collection of models, props and toys that are currently being utilized in a Mechanics of Materials class to demonstrate the main principles of the course. Topics supported by the visual aids and discussed herein include, but are not limited to: bending, torsion, shear center, shear flow, shear developed from transverse loading, normal stress, compression and tension, Saint-Venant’s Principle, development of combined stresses, the effects of geometric properties such as the 2 Moment of Area, I, thin-walled pressure vessels and buckling.