 The Teacher's Manual that accompanies Shaping
Structures: Statics has elicited praise from a number of teachers for its many
helpful features. It's especially valuable when you're just getting started with Shaping
Structures: Statics, but you will also find yourself consulting its chapters again
and again in subsequent years.
The Manual is divided in two parts, the second of which is a set of
fully-worked-out answers to the chapter-end questions in the text. The first part consists
of 42 pages of advice and helpful hints for teachers. This begins with an essay on
teaching structures as a creative discipline. In this essay, you'll find down-to-earth
advice on how to make the switch from teaching statics as a set of limited mathematical
exercises, to teaching statics as an introduction to the limitless field of structural
design.
It then takes up the topics of the CD-ROM tutorial and its uses, how
to do graphic statics on the blackboard or overhead projector, and how to build a
collection of slides for use in the structures classroom. Next, a powerful physical
demonstration that leads to a derivation of the force polygon is described in detail. This
is followed by some sample worksheets for in-class exercises.
One of the most popular parts of the Manual is "Modeling Struts
and Ties With Straws and Strings," in which we show you how your students can be
given structures to design and build right during class, using inexpensive, readily
available materials. Students tend to get totally wrapped up in these exercises, which are
invaluable in building intuition and enthusiasm.
The next section tells in detail how to set up and run a design
studio that concentrates on the design of long-span roofs or bridges. This advice is
equally applicable to engineering and architecture programs, and even to a mix of
engineering and architecture students. "Rolling Ruler" tells how to purchase
this one-instrument drafting set that makes it easy for students to do graphical
solutions, even on a tablet-arm chair in the lecture hall or classroom.
"Testing the Water," the next essay in the Manual, offers
advice on blending some creative exercises into your existing statics class without
upsetting your traditional syllabus. (This is not an approach that we recommend--We've
found that teachers do better when they take the plunge in one big leap rather than adding
limited amounts of new material to a traditional course. But we can understand a number of
reasons that some teachers are reluctant to take so radical a step.)
The last essay, "But I Have to Teach Statics to 150 Students in
a Lecture Hall," gives some invaluable ideas on how to deal with a large class-ideas
such as how to avoid having to grade student work, how to give immediate help to students
who fail to grasp a concept in the lecture, how to have student groups design and build
small-scale structures right in the lecture hall, and how to jury design projects
efficiently for such a large group. It helps you make the transition from the old,
cut-and-dried teaching of mathematical statics to the new, creative approach to statics,
regardless of the number of students that you must teach.
The Teacher's Manual, which was written by Edward Allen, is sent
free of charge to any teacher who adopts the text for classroom use. If you've adopted Shaping
Structures: Statics and don't have the Teacher's Manual, you can use the order form on this website to order it. |
