Abstract:

The professional activity related to structure`s design, calculation and execution means an important responsibility, due to the considerable human and material damages that can be caused if, for any reason, a collapse occurs. Subject is so difficult that it takes place for the students to immerse themselves in the calculations so perspective is lost and they do not internalize the importance that has to undertake them in the right way.

The use of real cases of collapses translates into a way of understanding the scope of this responsibility, and allows the student to know and contextualize the role of the engineer in these situations. The use of multimedia elements (videos, images, simulations, ...) allows to identify and observe with greater clarity the origin of the problem, which is not easy.

The main objectives of this work are (i) use real cases of structural collapses to help the students of these subjects in order to understand the importance of the professional work they are preparing to exercise, (ii) use multimedia elements for a detailed analysis of each case, relating them to concepts taught in the subjects (instability, fatigue, resonance, constructive processes, ...), and (iii) knowing the role of the engineer in these cases. The aim is for students to internalize the inherent responsibility of structural calculation and to understand that it is a subject that can only be demanding, otherwise we can incur catastrophes.

To this end, multimedia material has been collected from more than 30 cases of collapses, which is being used by teachers to analyze them and link it with contents of the subjects, in class sessions supported by virtual teaching tools. The sessions are especially open to the participation of the students, who usually shows curiosity about what happened and interest in participating in the analysis.

The sessions are taught in 3 different courses (2nd, 3rd and 4th) of the Degree in Mechanical Engineering, mention in industrial construction, in order to observe the evolution of interest throughout their academic career. 6 different subjects participate in the project, so it concerns more than 100 students. Surveys are used to quantify this interest before and after the activities. The preliminary results of this project show that these activities are appropriate to improve motivation and interest in professional ethics in the field.

Keywords:

Structures, collapse.