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MoM, Dr. Beam, and Visual Mechanics: Direct Manipulation Software for Learning Mechanics of Materials
Gregory Miller
J. Ray Bowen Professor of Civil Engineering
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington
gmiller@u.washington.edu
Why use technology?
Like many instructors who teach mechanics of materials, I've experienced frustrating times when I feel that I've hit a wall in terms of what I'd like to communicate to our students and what I actually can communicate. This often involves something that would be much easier to understand if it could be animated or displayed dynamically, or I want to show better images than I can construct on the blackboard. But at the same time, I don't want to display
a completely rendered, complex figure, because then it's not the same as seeing the figure evolve step-by-step during a blackboard lecture. Lectures can be effective for this--instead of seeing a complex figure in a textbook, with labels and lines all over it, students can watch the instructor demonstrate how the thing was constructed, so they see the sequence of how something came to be. It's like telling a story, really....So my colleagues and I developed a system of computer-based tools for our classes--and for any engineering faculty to use--because we knew they would be really useful in giving the students a much richer, virtual, hands-on interaction with the concepts of the mechanics of materials...
If you have any questions about our project, you can contact me at: gmiller@u.washington.edu
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