Introduction
This newly added section provides a selection of students’ coursework on, “Understanding and Using Structural Concepts”, produced since 2009 by the final year MEng Civil Engineering students and MSc Structural Engineering students as part of a module on structural analysis at The University of Manchester. This section also forms a source of learning for students themselves enabling them to learn from other students rather than from lecturers and textbooks.
It is hoped that students learn effectively and actively and this, in part, requires appropriate activities and/or stimulators being provided. Students are asked to study, Seeing and Touching Structural Concepts, at the website, www.structuralconcepts.org, where structural concepts are demonstrated by physical models and their applications are shown by practical examples. It is hoped that students can not only quickly revise a number of concepts they studied previously but can also gain an improved understanding of the structural concepts.
Enhancing the understanding of structural concepts was first introduced in 2006 when the website was available internally and students were asked to do pieces of related individual coursework. After reading through the coursework, we felt that the individual submissions were interesting and varied and included some creative components. The coursework was revised and improved on the basis of the previous submissions every year. The title of the coursework was changed to Understanding and using structural concepts in 2012, emphasizing hands-on activities where possible. It was hoped that the revised coursework would encourage students to consider and explain structural concepts in a simple manner and would also encourage them to look for examples of structural concepts in everyday life motivating further study and the development of a greater understanding and awareness of structural concepts.
The presentation of these submissions follows the same style of this website. They are classified based on the contents, such as bending or resonance, then divided into either physical models or practical examples. We keep the original submissions without any changes. Thus minor errors or even mistakes may be presented in some submissions. However, we hope that you enjoy the ideas presented in the coursework submissions.
Photos in some submissions may have been downloaded from the internet. Although acknowledgements have been given in related students, no permissions have been granted for using them in the website. If you are the owner of any of the photos in the students’ submissions and don’t wish them to be used in this way, please let us know. We will remove the submissions immediately.
To Students:
This selection demonstrates to you what students can achieve. If you would like to have a try, please read the coursework specification which tells you the procedure to complete.
To Lecturers:
Please feel free to use the teaching and learning resources provided in this website for your own teaching. You can use them directly or improve them to fit your needs. There is further information on class delivery.
We would be pleased to hear from you if you have any suggestions or comments.
Tianjian Ji and Adrian Bell