Enhanced Learning Through A "Virtual Laboratory"

Abstract

This work reports on the effectiveness of a "virtual laboratory" for helping students transfer engineering theory to the design and building of a model truss. When students had only a series of lectures in strength of materials, statics, and structures, students were only marginally able to incorporate that knowledge into reasonable designs. But, , by additionally providing students with a graphic-based design tool that allowed them to think in terms of the geometry of the application (www.jhu.edu\virtlab\bridge\truss.htm), the designs improved dramatically. Two educational objectives were achieved with this virtual laboratory: integrating ideas from multiple disciplines; and providing physical insight into a problem that is typically treated through the abstraction of mathematics.