3804
USING A MOLA STRUCTURAL KIT TO TEACH TRUSS BEHAVIOR;
RODRIGO CUTRI, NAIR STEM, PATRICIA ANTONIO, KEITI PEREIRA VIDAL DE SOUZA;
COBENGE22
[82] 04. Metodologias e avaliação do ensino-aprendizagem
[300] 04. Metodologias e avaliação do ensino-aprendizagem
This complete evidence-based practice paper will describe an innovative experience in truss teaching. How do flat trusses work? How do tensile and compressive forces behave in a structure? The trusses subject is addressed during the first year of the Engineering course of the Maua Institute of Technology and is the basis for further use mainly by the Civil Engineering course. For proper use in class, it was necessary initially to present a simpler situation that would allow the student to build the knowledge necessary to work with a more complex case, in which several concepts are mobilized at the same time. Students, through modeling and experimental verification could test concepts and obtain answers to the behaviors studied. The innovation here was the use of a Mola Structural kit, an interactive physical model that simulates the behavior of architectural structures. Thus, by means of the usage of Mola Structural kit (https://molamodel.com/), students set up several simple structures and increased their complexity, analyzing at each step the involved concepts. Then, they performed the physical-mathematical analysis applying the knowledge of Free Body Diagram and Force Balance, modeling the problem, and then comparing the result obtained with a prototype built by the Physics student monitors. The activity was applied at the last semester of the 2018 school year to 1st year engineering students during the Physics lab classes. The attraction for the kit was almost immediate. Because easy interaction, many students already wanted to start practicing before to listen to initial explanations. The spatial visualization was of great value so that the students could understand more clearly the concepts of tension and compression forces involved and verify in a practical way the studied knowledge. According to a questionnaire applied to students, it was found that the understanding of flat trusses was better with the use of the kit for 74.4% of students, and the concepts of tension and compression became very clear for a 100% of student. That the physics classes contributed positively to the understanding of future subjects (74.4% answered yes and reasonably) and that the understanding of the joint method of obtaining internal forces was clear to 84.6% of the students.
Truss;Physics
