Educational Resource Materials |
4.1 |
Special Educational Opportunity |
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Few educational institutions in this country introduce their undergraduate or graduate students to the use of the strut-and-tie design method. As the merits of the design procedure are appreciated and as code developments continue, hundreds of institutions in the US will face the challenge of teaching their students to use a procedure for which their instructors have had little or no experience. This situation presents a special opportunity to provide instructors and students with a package of educational materials. Most practicing engineers are also unaware of this design methodology, which creates an added educational challenge. To address these needs, the following resources, in addition to program CAST, will be prepared and made available from the PI’s strut-and-tie educational web site.
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4.2 |
Slides for Instruction of STM |
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PowerPoint transparency slides will be created. They can be used by instructors to provide an introduction to the STM, provide experimental justification for code provisions, describe the steps in the design procedure, and illustrate how to use the CAST education and design tool.
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4.3 |
Worked Solutions and Unsolved Problems |
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An extensive collection of worked examples for many common design problems will be prepared. These examples will be prepared using existing and developing code provisions. Examples of structures that have been designed and built will also be presented.
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4.4 |
Workbooklet for In-Class Instruction |
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Student work-booklets will be prepared that contain detailed information, defined space for note-taking, incomplete simple problems to be worked in class, other in-class activities, and more realistic solved example problems. The work-booklet is expected to be 20-30 pages in length.
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4.5 |
Online Teaching Modules |
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Interactive online educational activities will be developed that will enable novices to both learn and evaluate their understanding of the design procedure. These activities will at least include drawing and selecting acceptable truss models for different design situations as well as investigating the factors that influence stress limits.
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4.6 |
Educational Video |
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A 40-minute video will be created that covers all aspects of the STM for the design of D- (Discontinuity) Regions. This includes background information, techniques for selecting an appropriate truss, the design code, overview of at least one worked example, description of applications of the procedure, and the CAST tool. Sufficient funds in the budget have been reserved for creating and mailing hundreds of copies of this video. Additional videos would be available at cost. |
