Simple Experiments to Improve the Teaching of Structural Mechanics: a first experience.

Teaching Structural Mechanics in the Schools of Architecture asks for facing the fundamental aspects of the equilibrium and deformation of the structures through a didactic path that is articulated in different phases. The representation of real structures through mechanical models is based on a procedure of abstraction of the physical system in terms of mechanical language. Structural analysis then uses the fundamental principles of equilibrium and deformation specialized to the considered structural problems. Finally, the didactic process ends with the application of these methodologies to meaningful examples, that refer to single structural elements or whole constructions. A critical element in teaching structural mechanics concerns the process of abstraction of the physical system in a mechanical model adequately simplified. In order to make this phase more comprehensible it is important to work with simple models, representative of structural components. Through the presentation of simplified physical models and by carrying out proper experiments the Student may grasp the basic questions of structural behaviour and realize the meaning of the formulas that translate these questions in the language of mechanics. By this way it results easier to establish a direct correspondence between physical reality and structural model.