Into, Through, And Beyond: An Integrative Framework For The Teaching Of Statics

Statics is universally recognized as a fundamental foundation course in engineering. Therefore, much research has focused on specific pieces of the Statics teaching puzzle, such as Statics Concept Inventories, concept-based hands-on experiments or demonstrations, and engineering design. However, there has been little discussion concerning a pedagogical framework by which to integrate those pieces to achieve the primary goal of overall student competency in Statics. In this paper, the author puts forth such a framework: Into, Through, and Beyond, a pedagogically-based teaching methodology that has been used primarily in the teaching of reading, ESL (English as a Second Language), and, more recently, in the teaching of foreign languages. Additionally, through its current linguistic usage, the content-based Into, Through, and Beyond framework provides an effective, analogous, and new model for the teaching of the Statics engineering ‘language,’ composed of specific vocabulary (e.g., force, moment, couple) and grammar (e.g., the ‘rules’ for constructing a free-body diagram and mathematic rules), within the content-base of fundamental engineering concepts (e.g., equivalency and equilibrium) and engineering design.