Students are introduced to the field of Civil Engineering by having them present about a well known structure, such as the Brooklyn Bridge, Eiffel Tower, or the Statue of Liberty. In Week 2, students are introduced to materials terms and the lab requires students to measure different materials stiffness with the resulting graph providing the modulus of elasticity. Week 3 is dedicated to building the manila file folder bridge. Week 4 starts with the students simulating a bridge design on a PC and the students can have a class competition for the lowest construction costs. The rest of this week has some team members completing the bridge while others characterize the strengths of the bridge members. The students then load test their bridges with the specified 5kg load. After they see their bridge's performance, week 5 and week 6 are dedicated to the static analysis of the forces on each of the bridge members.
| Week 1 This week introduces students to Civil Engineering. Monday is a video with student worksheet. Tuesday is a PowerPoint presentation describing civil engineering and formation of teams for the Great Civil Structures research project. Wednesday is dedicated to research the chosen structure and creating the PowerPoint presentation, with Thursday and Friday dedicated to the student presentations. |
Week 2 This week starts with a guest speaker from a nearby college or civil engineering firm. The Tuesday PowerPoint presentation defines the terminology to describe materials and their properties. The Wed. / Thu. lab actually measures material stiffness of different materials and orientations. On Fri., students present their data and Modulus of Elasticity calculations and compare their results with published literature. Acknowledgement to Eric E. Matsumoto et.al., California State University, Sacramento, for this lab idea and most of the procedures. Check the links to read their paper as it gives detailed background. |
Week 3 This week focuses on bridge construction from manila file folders. It is highly recommended for the instructor and all students to read and frequently refer to Learning Activity #1 from the book by Colonel Stephen J. Ressler, P.E., Ph.D., Designing and Building File Folder Bridges. |
Week 4 As an attention grabber, Monday will have the students simulate a bridge design using a PC based program. Have a class competition to design the least expensive bridge. The rest of the week will be for completion of their bridge construction and do a final weight stress test. Students will use a characterization tool to quantify both the relationships between tube length vs. compression induced buckling and strip width vs. tension induced shearing. These characterization results will be used to determine the actual strength limits of the paper bridge and allow Factor of Safety calculations (week 6). It is highly recommended for the instructor and all students to read and frequently refer to Learning Activity #1 and Learning Activity #2 from the book by Colonel Stephen J. Ressler, P.E., Ph.D., Designing and Building File Folder Bridges. |
Week 5 This week focuses on the mathematics required to analyze a truss structure. Structural Analysis I covers the mathematical concepts of Pythagoreon Theorem, sin, cos, vector components, equilibrium, and reactions. An excellent reference is Learning Activity #3 from the book by Colonel Stephen J. Ressler, P.E., Ph.D., Designing and Building File Folder Bridges. |
Week 6 Students will complete the mathematical static analysis of a truss bridge structure. There is a lot of math involved and many examples might be a good idea. Students may also need copies of the PowerPoint solutions as an example. Students wil then use their calculations and characterization data to calculate the bridge Factor of Safety. An excellent reference is Learning Activity #3 from the book by Colonel Stephen J. Ressler, P.E., Ph.D., Designing and Building File Folder Bridges. |
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M |
Introduction to Civil Engineering Welcome students and prepare for the week. Review the entire six week objectives. Show video and have students complete worksheet while watching the video. First day objectives
| Materials Introduction A guest speaker from industry or academia who brings some visual aids, such as different sizes of reinforcement bar (re-bar), shear test samples, and field experiences is a powerful motivational introduction. Motivational Activities
| Bridge Construction Begin construction of the manila file-folder bridge Attention Grabber
| Bridge Characterization and Continued Construction Simulate bridge design on the PC. Attention Grabber
| Structural Analysis I Use the forces attention grabber to visualize the effects of angles. Show the bridge to reinforce concept of triangles. Begin PowerPoint presentation on Static Analysis I. Activities
| Structural Analysis II Select a well constructed bridge for taking to catastrophic failure. Recall it was designed for a 5kg load, and the Factor of Safety from the Week 4 homework was over 2.0. Construction techniques will make it lower. Attention Grabber
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Career Opportunities Guided discussion, PowerPoint presentation. Create teams for research project and hand out assignment. PowerPoint presentation
| Materials Terms and Definitions Guided discussion, PowerPoint presentation. This introduces materials terminology and gives examples of stresses, failures, and a material's response to stresses. Materials Terminology and Definitions
| Bridge Construction Continue bridge construction | Bridge Characterization and Continued Construction Guided PowerPoint discussion teaching testing machine theory and how to characterize different shaped truss members. Each team will characterize a certain geometry member. Other teams will be continuing their bridge construction. An alternative is to bypass the characterization and use the tension and compression data from the book. If choosing this option, be sure to modify the homework and evaluation. PowerPoint topics
| Structural Analysis I Guided PowerPoint discussion reviewing the mathematics involved in structural analysis. Hand out homework after the presentation. PowerPoint Topics
| Structural Analysis II Guided PowerPoint presentation. This is the most complex lecture as it demonstrates how to use the Method of Joints to determine the internal forces on bridge members. I recommend doing many examples, alternating between white board, desk, and team solutions. PowerPoint topics
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Great Civil Structures Research Research topic and prepare presentation. Great Civil Structures
| Observe elasticity and measure material stiffness Student teams will setup the lab to apply a force (weight) and measure the deflection on different materials and cross sections. Materials characterization lab
| Bridge Construction Continue bridge construction | Bridge Characterization and Continued Construction Each team will characterize a certain geometry member. Other teams will be continuing their bridge construction | Structural Analysis I Attention grabber about vectors. Do example problems and help students. Advanced students can work on the simulator designs. | Structural Analysis II Mathematical static analysis examples Activities
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Th |
Presentation and Evaluation Students present research results Class procedure
| Observe elasticity and measure material stiffness Continue lab work from Wednesday. Materials characterization lab (continued)
| Bridge Construction Continue bridge construction | Bridge Characterization and Continued Construction Each team will characterize a certain geometry member. If any bridges are complete, weight test them from both top chord and bottom chord. All other teams should be completing their bridge construction. | Structural Analysis I Review concepts from the PowerPoint presentation. Advanced students can work on their bridge simulations. Activities
| Structural Analysis II Mathematical static analysis examples Activities
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Presentation and Evaluation Students present research results Class procedure
| Presentation and Evaluation Presentation of Results Presentation and Evaluation
| Bridge Construction Continue bridge construction | Bridge Characterization and Continued Construction Weight load bridges, both top chord and bottom chord. Activities
| Structural Analysis I Evaluation Collect homework Quiz Link for Lesson: | Structural Analysis II Evaluation Last quiz of the module. Activities
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