COMBINATION OF PUZZLE METHOD AND SCALED MODELS TO IMPROVE COOPERATIVE AND AUTONOMOUS LEARNING IN STRENGTH OF MATERIALS SUBJECT

The Strength of Materials is a fundamental subject for the development of competences in the rest of the mechanical engineering. In recent years, there have been difficulties in understanding key concepts by students, such as the behavior of tensions and deformations of simple structures, reflected both in a limited success rate and in the surveys made to students. The teaching team has proposed to improve the understanding of the fundamental concepts of the subject by implementing a methodology that combines the puzzle method, which improves cooperative learning, with an innovative technique, which consists of the use of scaled structural models. This last methodology is based on the representation of simple structures on a reduced scale in which the basic concepts of tension, deformation, stability and stiffness are reflected. These models are used in lectures, by the teacher, as in the seminars, where students interact with the models, improving their autonomous and cooperative learning. The results of the employed methodologies have been valued, among others, by means of some surveys completed by the students. In them, the students have valued the methodologies very positively and it has been reflected that they have the feeling that they achieve a better understanding. Likewise, students have shown great interest in the use of scaled structural models as a learning tool.