A Simple Beam Test: Motivating High School Teachers To Develop Pre Engineering Curricula

The College of Engineering and Computer Science at California State University, Sacramento has developed a daylong workshop for high school teachers interested in developing and teaching pre-engineering curricula. Recent workshop participants from nine high schools performed “hands-on” laboratory experiments that can be implemented at the high school level to introduce basic engineering principles and technology and to inspire students to study engineering. This paper describes one experiment that introduces fundamental structural engineering concepts through a simple beam test. A load is applied at the center of a beam using weights, and the resulting midspan deflection is measured. The elastic stiffness of the beam is determined and compared to published values for various beam materials and cross sectional shapes. Beams can also be tested to failure. This simple and inexpensive experiment provides a useful springboard for discussion of important engineering topics such as elastic and inelastic behavior, influence of materials and structural shapes, stiffness, strength, and failure modes. Background engineering concepts are also introduced to help high school teachers understand and implement the experiment. Participants rated the workshop highly and several teachers have already implemented workshop experiments in pre-engineering curricula.