Experiential Learning through Scale Structural Models

Abstract

The search for new methodologies in the classroom, able to improve the teaching-learning process, linked to the emergence of new overall skills (creativity, group work, leadership skills, etc.), means that an increasing number methodologies bet for experiential learning. The active participation of the students in activities that allow them to learn rehearsing helps to increase the leadership in the learning process. The construction of the structures is located at the vertex of three issues: the material we built up with, its strength and its on-site setting characteristics. The wide range of the three aspects contemplated, not always allows teaching them grouped in the same subject. On the other hand, stand-alone learning of the issues makes difficult for the student to understand the full picture. The possibility of join them in one experience, no matter how limited, offers these three aspects in a unified way. This experience aims to involve the student in a learning experience, where apply the theoretical knowledge acquired in the construction of a structural prototype fitting to some parameters or challenges that must be satisfied. The model must be made with limited dimensions and weight and must be able to resist a specific load in a real classroom test. Therefore, the information received in different subjects related to stresses, materials strengths and life span behavior must be collected, structured and valued, for the application to a scale model. The activity implementation has been carried out through a competition of structural models between the Escuela de Edificacion and Ingenieria Civil, which belong to the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid. The challenge has allowed the exchange of experiences among students on issues related to the construction and analysis of structures. In spite of the strong positive, though subjective, feelings of the lecturers and the satisfaction shown by the students, the small number of participants has prevented a rigorous evaluation of the results obtained. The activity challenge is expected to be repeated this current year with a larger number of students and the participation of more university schools