HOW SHOULD WE BE TEACHING STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING TO UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS?

摘要

A discussion about today’s undergraduate program and the structural design profession in the 21st century among engineering educators inevitably turns to relevance. Practicing structural design professionals expect graduate engineers prepared to contribute to the design office. Yet are we adequately preparing the “new crop” for the realities of this practice? Employers readily identify those characteristics that are valued in new hires. The list is long and wideranging; sound technical knowledge of mechanics and structural materials may form the basis of the list, but employers are also looking for graduates to have complementary “soft skills.” They expect students to be knowledgeable of construction practices, to have the ability to understand and apply the Canadian design codes, to be competent contributors to a multi-disciplinary design team and to able to effectively communicate with both this team and the clients. One teaching method that can be utilized to balance the need for strong technical skills with the soft skills required by the profession is by incorporating a structural engineering case study component as an integral part of structural design courses. A case study component has been included in the undergraduate structural design course for a number of years at Dalhousie University. Details of how the case study component was organized, implemented and evaluated will be discussed. The case study format presents challenges for the students, as well as the instructor, especially when attempting to integrate it into a traditional lecture based teaching format. The strategies used to address problems as they arose, leading to an evolution of the case study approach, as well as the students’ feedback will be presented. The paper will conclude with a summary of the author’s recommendations for incorporating a case study term project aimed to complement the teaching of structural design in an undergraduate civil engineering curriculum.