The Structural Playground, a New Environment Where to Enjoy Learning Structural Engineering

摘要

In the last years we have seen how the traditional teacher-centered model of education is being replacedrnby a learner-centered model where both the student and the instructor share prominence. This shift hasrnrequired the implementation of new teaching methodologies but, very often, has not been accompanied byrnchanges in the physical space where the learning process takes place. In this paper, the authors introducernan experimental classroom designed to teach several structural engineering courses at PrincetonrnUniversity. The classroom is named “The Structural Playground” because it was conceived as a nice andrnplayful environment inspired by the playgrounds and classrooms of nurseries schools and kindergartens.rnThe paper describes the “Structural Playground” and summarizes the main lessons learned with it.