Incorporation of Hands-On Experiment in an Introductory Structural Analysis Course

A new teaching laboratory will be developed for the junior course in CE-ArchE 217 Structural Analysis I. The primary objective of the laboratory was to give students “hands-on” experiences and build their understanding of structural analysis and their application to civil and architectural engineering structures including transportation structures such as bridges. The experiments will be designed to foster creative thinking and to make the study of structural analysis more meaningful by incorporating the concept of design, model, test, observe, and discuss. Specific educational objectives of the hands-on experiments are: (1) Acquaint the students with basic experimental techniques, computer modeling, equipment, and methods used in the analysis of structures (2) Provide the students with opportunities to make experimental observations and relate them to theory and computer models, and further discuss the results, draw conclusion and communicate the findings in writing, as well as orally. (3) Introduce the student to experimental research and laboratory modeling of experiments.