Although understanding the theory may be fine for some, many students find it challenging to translate structural concepts into the concrete world.
Knowing the challenge, the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering at POLIS University (Albania) saw in Mola Structural Kits a way to deepen the understanding of the students, transform the study routine and make it more enjoyable.
In this article, we talk about how POLIS University applies Mola in everyday life.
The main objective in introducing Mola is to broaden the design skills and strengthen the engineering knowledge of future architects and civil engineers who graduated from POLIS University.
Mola Structural Kits have been used for approximately three years, with students of the second and third years of the Architecture course and also students of the second year of the Civil Engineering course. Mola has been used as part of disciplines such as Construction Science 1 and 2; Statics, Dynamics, Resistance of Materials, Theory of Structures and Theory of Elasticity.
Professor Dr. Nikolla Vesho explains how the program for using Mola is designed: "In architecture classes, we use it mainly for introduction, but also [to explain] aspects of geometric stability of simple structures. While in Civil Engineering classes, we mainly use it [to understand] aspects of static configuration, theory of elasticity, deformations applying different loads, and finally for some scenarios of collapse mechanisms after seismic actions."
Students experience Mola for about six weeks of the annual 24-week academic cycle. Initially, they experiment freely with simple, stable structures based on theoretical knowledge acquired in class. Afterward, groups are formed where they can follow the tutorials contained in the Mola manuals.
During the last weeks of the program, students assemble more complex structures. They are motivated through a competition, evaluated based on logic and construction time and on a static load test accompanied by seismic activity applied by a shaking table.
Over the last years using Mola, the model have become a fundamental part of teaching structures in Architecture and Civil Engineering courses at POLIS University, even fostering collaborations between the courses.
Through the use of the Mola Structural Kits, students at POLIS University are gaining an understanding of structural principles based on tangible and concrete experience. The kits make it possible to build and test different structures, giving them hands-on experience that is essential to learning.
By working with Mola, students can see how different materials and construction methods can impact the stability of a structure. This experience will later be essential in their projects, consolidating the knowledge needed to design safe and effective constructions.
The results obtained are quite positive, as Professor Dr. Nikolla Vesha says: "Mola is a tool that reduces the imbalance between theory and practice. It also reduces the barriers between teacher and student, creating a certain atmosphere in the classroom. Through Mola I feel more comfortable as a teacher and I also have an additional tool in the framework of explanation."
In the future, the university hopes to expand the connection between the institution and Mola. Professor Dr. Vesha states, "Our long-term goal is to consolidate the connection with Mola. Including more tangible cooperation through the exchange of experiences and workshops, but also incorporating the innovations Mola introduces to the system."
What do you think of how POLIS University uses Mola Structural Kits? Would you like to try something similar at your university? Tell us in the comments.
]]>The modular system of a physical model like Mola allows you to materialize what your imagination conceives in a precise and functional way. It enables tests and adjustments early in the design process, making it a great ally for your structural design projects.
In this article, we explain how the structural project of the Goián-Cerveira footbridge was designed and how Mola was used to test hypotheses and find solutions.
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Few structures are as symbolic as bridges. When there is the will to unite cities or countries, there are few better ways to expand circulation and create cultural interaction than by building bridges.
In the spirit of expanding connections between Spain and Portugal, an international competition was held to award a project designed to link the Espazo Fortaleza park in Goián-Tomiño (Spain) to the Castelinho park in Vila Nova de Cerveira (Portugal).
The Spanish companies Bernabeu Ingenieros and Burgos & Garrido Arquitectos designed the Goián-Cerveira footbridge for this competition, which is part of the Interreg VA Spain-Portugal (POCTEP) Programme, responsible for promoting cross-border cooperation projects with the support of the European Union.
By linking the two parks, the project will create the first cross-border park in Europe – Parque da Amizade – allowing pedestrians and cyclists to access the parks on both sides of the Miño River.
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The design follows two main ideas: the proposal of a structure based on a hybrid structural typology; and the preservation of the landscape, aiming for minimum intrusion into the river and maximum structural lightness.
The structural design is based on hybrid typology research between a suspended structure and the horizontal arch effect of the deck.
The bridge overcomes a span of 265 meters. The deck is supported by the main cable – composed of two elements of 200 mm in diameter – and by two cables of 30 mm in diameter every 12 meters. Two pylons support the main cable and are placed one on each bank of the river, integrated with the preexisting trees.
The characteristics of this structure make possible a very slender deck – only 30 cm thick at the ends and 90 cm in the center – which reduces the project's interference in the landscape and helps to preserve the environment.
The structural engineers used digital models to assist the design of the footbridge, especially during the form-finding process, and to define the geometric configuration.
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From the beginning, the engineering team aimed to have a qualitative understanding of the structural system they were designing and even used a human model, making it possible to feel the tension and compression forces in the structure.
To have a more precise and complete qualitative analysis, a physical model using Mola Structural Kits was also assembled, which helped to understand different aspects of structural behavior and the construction process.
Jorge Bernabeu, from Bernabeu Ingenieros, explains why it was important using Mola as a design tool:
"Mola helps as a physical model to make tests, trials and verify hypotheses. It is very real, visual, and physical. You can touch it with your hands and feel the structural response. On the other hand, it encourages the freedom of play. This second aspect is as important as the previous one or even more so."
During the design phase, the project drawings were sent to Brazil. With the drawings in hand, Márcio Sequeira – founder of Mola – and the structural engineers from Bernabeu Ingenieros held virtual meetings to experiment with different structural configurations. As a result, it was possible to assemble a final model representing the project's structural behavior faithfully.
Since the bridge has a horizontally curved shape, it was necessary to experiment with different solutions for the elements representing the deck. The final solution was to use pieces of foamboard cut in the appropriate format.
Also, different cables and adjustable length bars were used to simulate a simplified version of the bridge's structural scheme.
Jorge Bernabeu explains how Mola was crucial to the development of the final design:
"The joint of the hangers, both to the main cable and to the deck is an essential detail that is very cleverly solved with Mola. The cable is joined by 4 hangers with different angles and lengths.
Also, the anchoring of the main cable with the towers is a key joint and detail. During assembly, it collapsed several times. The tensile stress was at the limit of the magnetic force of the elements. This caused the structure to collapse. It was a warning about the importance of a particular joint in the safety of the overall structure."
The assembly process used temporary supports, which were important to adjust the length and tension of all cable arrangements in the structural system.
After all the cable adjustments were made, the temporary supports were removed. Still, a few adjustments were necessary to balance the deck. The final result is a model representing the same structural configuration of the original design, allowing a qualitative understanding of the structural phenomena in the footbridge.
After this process, the necessary parts were packed together with an assembly guide and sent to Spain so that Bernabeu engineers could experiment with the model with their own hands.
Bernabeu gives more details:
"Step by step, the temporary supports were removed symmetrically, from the center to the sides, regulating the tension of the hangers at each phase. It should be noted that the Mola hangers can also be easily adjusted, both with the balls of the hanger elements as well as with the adjustment screw. This made it possible to adjust the position of the deck.
In the process of the model, it was a challenge to adjust the hangers to achieve the geometry of equilibrium and the horizontality of the deck. The challenge of the model brought us ahead of the challenge of calculation and construction."
This model allowed experimenting on the assembly sequence, made it possible to perceive the relevance of rear compensation cables in balance and shape, and reinforced the importance of tension and length of the cables for the balance and elevation of the deck.
Jorge Bernabeu explains: "The Mola model itself followed its own construction process. The starting point was the deck supported on provisional piers. This was the most difficult part of the structural design."
The engineer also explains how Mola made the footbridge design process more fun:
"We have to say that we enjoyed making the model. This is very important and contributes to the enjoyment of the experimental design of structures. Designing should not be understood as a routine and deterministic calculation, but rather as a game and a challenge."
What do you think of the Goián-Cerveira footbridge project? How do you use Mola in your day-to-day structural design? Please share with us in the comments.
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Mola Structural Kits allow you to build physical models that simulate the static behavior of structures. But if you want to shake things a bit, adding a shake table to the study makes a perfect combo for analyzing structural systems under dynamic loads.
Introducing shake tables to classes can also be a way to add an exciting atmosphere as learners go through hands-on demonstrations, student-to-student challenges, or other classroom dynamics you can create.
Below are some examples of Mola Structural Kits combined with shake tables to inspire your classes and project analysis.
Quanser is one of the leading companies creating optimized products for engineering education and research, and they also have shake tables in their product catalog. This article published on their official website uses Mola to demonstrate how mass and stiffness affect resonant frequency.
Bridge to the Future is a project of University of Exeter that held a workshop where engineering students taught basic structural engineering concepts to students at the University Technical College of South Devon. Among the activities proposed by Professor Maria Rosaria Marsico, who conceived the project, was building a shake table using LEGO.
The students then assembled models with the Mola Kits and demonstrated concepts such as harmonic frequency using the shake table they made themselves.
Another example comes from Australian engineer Mark Arkinstall of Arup. During lockdown due to COVID-19, he designed a LEGO shake table from scratch to have some fun and test with his Mola Structural Kit.
In 2019, the Brazilian Association of Engineering and Structural Consulting (ABECE) and Mola partnered with the PET Civil of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF) to hold the first edition of a national-level structural competition with Mola aimed at Engineering and Architecture students. This first competition already used shake tables in the finals to test the structures assembled by the students.
Structural competitions are a fantastic way to incorporate a fun and exciting activity into structural learning. Having a shake table to test the structures your students assemble is an excellent way to add an element of chaos and excitement to an already fun activity.
SUPSI is the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland and uses both the shake table and the Mola Kits to study dynamic loads in day-to-day lessons in the Bachelor of Civil Engineering.
SEAONC is the Structural Engineers Association of Northern California, created to foster a community of engineers and educate the public about the profession.
In 2021, they held three workshops introducing structural fundamentals to high school students as part of SEAONC outreach activities. The Mola Kits were employed as a tool to convey structural learning and as part of a challenge where the students had to compete to build the tallest tower and test their structures on a shake table.
SEAONY is the Structural Engineers Association of New York and has a similar mission to SEAONC we mentioned above.
Using a low-cost mini shake table, SEAONY held a structural competition as part of their outreach program for students. It's a great example of being creative without spending much money.
]]>Despite having a growing demand and influencing virtually all areas of everyday life, the choice for engineering, architecture and other STEM-related professions is not always obvious.
Sometimes it may be necessary to create a bridge so that students can get to know the field and be inspired by what engineering has to offer.
The Education Incubator is a project of the University of Exeter, in the United Kingdom, which aims to foster innovation and collaboration among its staff, opening space for the discovery, development and exploration of new ideas and teaching approaches.
Bridge to the Future was one of the projects supported by the Education Incubator in 2021 and was created by Professor Maria Rosaria Marsico. The main purpose is to engage and inspire students aged between 14 and 19 at the University Technical College of South Devon to pursue a STEM-related career.
The project uses Mola Structural Kits as a teaching tool, in order to introduce structural concepts through hands-on activities.
A notable attribute of the project was the active engagement of 3 students from the 2nd year of the University of Exeter's engineering course, co-creating study materials and deciding which models would be most suitable to be assembled.
The students, led by Prof. Marsico, recorded video guides and developed step-by-step tutorials that supported the workshop.
In addition to the guides and experiments with Mola, the students also set up a Lego shaking table to test the structures and understand the dynamic behavior of the models they built.
The students of the University Technical College received Mola Kits sent by the University of Exeter to make it possible to carry out the experiments remotely, conveying structural engineering to the teenagers in a way both encouraging and fun.
At the end of the workshop, the students wanted to have fun, build their own models and test the different structural behaviors
Prof. Marsico talks about the process: "We delivered clear instructions on how to assemble the models, but once they understood the approach, they started playing, having the structures collapse and then standing again. They just played themselves and it was nice because then they started to figure out the real applications of what we taught in theory."
Prof. Marsico also highlights what the engineering students learned beyond the fundamentals of structures:
"Another positive aspect was the feedback from my students, because they learned a lot from Mola, not only technical concepts but also teamwork, doing things for others, making a nice guidance video, etc. It was also a learning experience in terms of developing independence."
Students also rate the experience positively, especially regarding how easily the Mola Kits convey structural concepts even to people without an engineering background:
"I believe that one of the most successful parts was focusing the project on earthquakes. This was beneficial for two main reasons. The first was that it introduced a thrilling and exciting atmosphere that the children could engage with and allowed us to use lots of hyperbole and enthusiasm whilst talking about 'the devastating nature of earthquakes'. The second reason is that it allowed us to teach the children about harmonic frequency, a University level concept which is more graspable when applying it to a real-life scenario such as an earthquake."
The classes combined the teaching of some structural fundamentals with advice and inspiration in the direction of Higher Education. The workshop exceeded the expectations, with the teens demonstrating a greater understanding than initially expected.
Bridge to the Future was also selected as one of the standout projects of the University of Exeter's communication campaign called Transforming Education 2021, created to promote the university's activities in the areas of innovation, education without borders and students as co-creators.
The team is now exploring the possibility of bringing the project into the outreach and community engagement activities of the University of Exeter, as well as consolidating the partnership with the University Technical College of South Devon and other schools.
What do you think of Bridge to the Future? Does your university have a project like this to inspire new generations of engineers? Would you like to try something similar?
]]>This is the so-called traditional approach to teaching. Still, many professors feel this is not the most efficient way to address the issue and start looking for a method that makes the learning experience more enjoyable.
When we talk about teaching structures, we have a complex subject filled with calculations, theories and details that makes learning harder.
The Mola Structural Kits were designed as a teaching tool that stimulates investigation and curiosity, demonstrating structural fundamentals and offering the foundation to go beyond what is delivered in the classroom.
The FTMS or Follow/Tinker/Make/Share is a method focused on learning-by-making, designed to smooth the experience of students and professors by incorporating platform projects.
This article shows how the Mola Kits can be used alongside the FTMS method to make classes more engaging and effective.
Dr. William Rankin is an educational theorist with experience in higher education and focused on developing innovative teaching and learning. In 2016, Ranking co-founded the Unfold Learning group to help schools and companies leverage the "cubic learning" model developed during his work at Abilene Christian University and as a Director of Learning at Apple. He also developed the "Follow/Tinker/Make/Share" with the Learning-by-Making Collective.
FTMS is a constructionist learning framework. In other words, it's an approach oriented towards projects, designed to allow professors to adapt the method for their own contexts and goals.
None of the fundamentals behind FTMS are new. At the turn of the 20th Century, Lev Vygotsky, Maria Montessori, and John Dewey were all telling us about the value of projects and they were working to popularize this approach. These early constructivists knew that discovery is far more engaging than informational consumption and emphasized the importance of posing challenges to generate student-led learning.
FTMS includes a guiding phase where the learner follows instructions and incorporates projects to organically introduce the tools and concepts necessary for its implementation. The projects become the beginning of a path of exploration and discovery, similar to someone taking up a hobby.
For example, let's say you decide to learn programming by building a project with Arduino. Initially, you follow some tutorials to understand the fundamentals, but soon you get your hands dirty. Then you naturally start modifying the schemes, adjusting them here and there to give your personal touch. Next, you push forward, creating your own projects, getting increasingly distant from the initial guides. As you gain the confidence to share your experiments with family and friends, you engage with a community of people passionate about Arduino and learn even more by sharing experiences and reviewing other programmers' projects.
The basic structure of FTMS is similar to the example above.
Follow (direct instruction) builds a platform for Tinker (experimentation, modification, iteration), which develops the skills and knowledge necessary for Make (creative application through challenges), which sets the stage for Share (critical engagement, collaboration, and sharing experiences).
These phases are designed to work cooperatively, guiding the learners along a pathway of increasing cognitive refinement. When the students go through each stage, they naturally face the need to develop their skills and to differentiate, create, solve challenges, communicate, lead, and connect.
Each phase calls for a deeper engagement but also offers the opportunity for a richer exploration as the learner faces challenges and shares experiences with other students.
This phase is the closest to what we understand by "traditional teaching".
However, in FTMS it is used more like a beginning rather than an end. Follow is the phase in which the learner follows direct instructions, guides, or tutorials. The goals are to guide the student through the fundamentals and shape the discipline's initial understanding.
In this stage, the students can make mistakes and undo actions without any trouble because the projects are still simple, like platforms built to allow experimentation.
The manuals of the Mola Kits play this role as a study guide. The students can build their learning and absorb the fundamentals explained in the classroom by assembling the examples and experimenting, feeling the structural phenomena with their hands.
One of the defining characteristics of this phase is that the project assembled during the activities looks the same as demonstrated in the step-by-step guides or study materials.
After understanding the fundamentals by following a guide, it's natural that questions start to come out. "What happens if I remove this piece?", "What if I build another story?", "Does this structure keep standing if I remove this cable?".
In the Tinker phase, these questions are not only embraced but encouraged. By making these small changes to the original design, students begin to test their hypotheses and expand their knowledge. By testing incremental changes, the learners begin to understand how the fundamental concepts relate and why they are important.
These minor adjustments start what Piaget calls Schema, in other words, points of understanding that internalize and build mental models.
While in the Follow phase all the student's projects look the same, now they start to look different from each other. The Tinker phase welcomes experimentation, but it's important to keep the essence of the platform project.
Make is the phase where the students can apply the skills and knowledge acquired during the previous phases by developing a project themselves.
After following step-by-step guides, learning the fundamentals, and experimenting to better understand the phenomena, the Make stage encourages developing skills through the execution of an idea, a project, or overcoming a challenge with a briefing that can be shared with other students or self-imposed.
Unlike the Follow and Tinker phases, in Make it's important to focus on bigger challenges rather than basic buildings or simple modifications. For example, "building a model with a free span of X inches", "building the taller skyscraper using fewer pieces","designing a bridge that allows the passage of a certain miniature".
Make is designed to advance skills and concepts unfolded in the previous phases while introducing new expectations in terms of protagonism and creativity. This step is essential to bring individual study into practice through direct application.
The projects generated at this phase highlight important factors of independent practice: depth of knowledge, synthetic ability, conceptual understanding, adaptability, organizational skills, and planning. All of these are valuable indicators in project-based assessment, but they are also key factors in the continuity of learning and to encourage the students to incorporate what they learned in the real world, not just in the learning context.
In this last stage, there is an emphasis on collaboration and communication, situating learning as an activity both social and metacognitive.
In Share, the students are encouraged to share their projects and what they learned throughout their execution.
For example, the learners might critically compare their projects to others that address similar challenges, hold a competition simulating actual work conditions, or combine their projects, creating a robust 'mashup' of solutions.
We can point DAD Project as an example of this. The project consists of gathering a few groups of learners to design, assemble and disassemble a full-scale model. The closing stage of the workshop includes creating a video to document the experiment.
In the context of individual study, maybe a learner could record a video explaining fundamental aspects of the project to ask for comments and develop an online discussion about the creation process.
By sharing what they learned, talking about how they did it and how they solved the problems that arose along the way, students test the depth of their knowledge in the real world. In this phase, it's important to create means for developing aspects of social intelligence, allowing a better assessment of understanding, self-regulation, and interpersonal skills.
Incorporating a hands-on method such as FTMS into classes can bring learning closer to the students' daily routine, making them get legitimately involved and excited about structures.
Now we'd like to know: did you experiment with a hands-on approach in your university? Do you have plans to try FTMS?
Keynotes and Interviews with William Rankin
Article about FTMS written by William Rankin
Keynote speech about how to design better learning experiences
]]>The Amigos da Poli Endowment Fund makes it possible for former students to take a step beyond their reflections. Through this initiative, they can participate in how the university teaches engineering through donations that enable improvements and foster innovation at the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo (USP), one of the most prestigious Engineering Schools In Brazil.
In 2020, through the approval of the project proposed by Professor Dr. Valério Almeida to the Amigos da Poli fund, USP received 60 structural kits evenly distributed between Mola 1, Mola 2, and Mola 3.
The project expects to, directly and indirectly, benefit around 1000 students and 10 professors per year. The goal is to expand the pedagogical tools to help interpret the behavior of structures. Also, to make possible the didactic requalification of the Strength of Materials laboratory of the Geodetic Structures department.
Professor Dr. Henrique Lindenberg Neto, a member of the Advisory Board of Amigos da Poli, believes this acquisition will bring a significant impact on the disciplines of structural mechanics in all courses at Poli and the College of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo (FAU):
"Students will have a very efficient tool for understanding how structures behave. Even students who won't work directly with structures, such as computer and chemical engineers, will forever keep the fundamental concepts of the qualitative behavior of the structures learned through Mola."
Marcio Sequeira (3rd from left to right) and USP's structures-related courses professors.
The acquisition of 60 Mola Kits allows an even more hands-on, creative and dynamic approach to teaching structures.
The project proponent, Professor Dr. Valério Almeida, explains how they intend to make use of the kits:
“Since Mola is a qualitative model, the idea is to show the deformability, to show the types of support and their reactions. We want students to effectively learn and have direct contact with everything we explain in class, on the board, or a slide. This acquisition is extremely important for us, to effectively make them participate, to use their hands.
We'll create labs outside the classroom to introduce them, to make them set up projects and after that design plans and visualize everything three-dimensionally."
In 2021, when the recommendation was the social distancing for the universities due to the pandemic, Poli started using kits as a didactic tool in remote classes.
The Mola Kits were used to record videos of 2 to 3 minutes to demonstrate the basic concepts covered in class, such as the difference between flat and spatial models, the definition of hypo, iso and hyperstatic structures, bracing systems, etc.
The videos show a step-by-step guide of each example, making a qualitative comparison of its deformed configuration for a specific type of action relative to what was obtained using analysis software.
Through online classes and the course's virtual platform, it was possible to teach more than 220 students in the first period of the course.
At the same time, Mola Kits were available in the Civil Engineering library so the students could practice in their spare time.
The Mola Structural Kits also were used to welcome students to Poli as part of the 2022 Freshman Reception Week program, marking the complete return to face-to-face activities.
After an opening event made to integrate the students, they gathered to participate in a workshop held by Márcio Sequeira, founder of Mola. In addition, there was a structural competition that awarded the winning group with 4 Mola Structural Kits, one for each member, to keep their studies at home using their own sets.
Professor Dr. Valério Almeida talks about the event:
"I think Mola is very important to this event we organized here because we managed to attract this student who is not so interested in structures and make him or her able to playfully learn about structures, to be interested when we talk about bracing, static models, core walls, etc."
For Bruno, a first-year undergraduate student, the activity served as an introduction to the area and further ignited his interest in structures:
"For me, this event already helped establish what we will work on because I'm starting and I know almost nothing. The activity also motivated me to seek more because we are still discovering what the course is and the structural study is a subject of civil engineering that interests me."
A few days later, there was another event, bringing together students at FAU, where Márcio Sequeira held two workshops as part of USP's efforts to integrate the courses of Architecture and Design.
As the in-person activities return, the professors are planning lectures to demonstrate concepts using Mola Structural Kits.
Besides, students will work in groups within the course program. Each team will create a project that includes constructing a model with specific characteristics, such as minimum span, pillars, cantilever size and floors. This activity will involve the participation of a class monitor who will help with their projects. At the end, the students will make a report to present the model with scale plans and images regarding the project.
The use of structural kits at Poli and FAU demonstrates how these playful activities, incorporating physical models into the daily teaching of structures, deepen the concepts taught in class. Professor Dr. Leila Meneghetti from the Structural and Geotechnical Engineering department of the USP Polytechnic School explains further:
"Physical models play a very important role in understanding the phenomena to which structures are subjected. The physical models help the students feel structures and perceive their behavior through the imposition of loads and during experiments.
Mola represents very well the phenomena of deformation in the beams, bracing and the types of connections such as fixed and hinged. This is very good because these are hypotheses we use in calculation that can be represented physically."
What do you think of how the University of São Paulo uses the Mola Structural Kits? Would you like to try something similar at your university? Tell us more about it in the comments.
]]>However, one of the biggest challenges in this configuration is transforming theory into a practice that prepares students for work-related situations while making the learning experience as exciting and – why not? – fun as possible.
The DAD Project was created in 2014 by Dr. Alireza Behnejad, Director of the Spatial Structures Research Centre at the University of Surrey, England, to help engineering and architecture students develop their professional skills.
The interest of Dr. Behnejad in creating a bridge between academy and industry goes back to the first courses and workshops on spatial structures he held at different universities. Despite initially being more "chalk and talk" in nature, his classes progressively became more and more hands-on as he noticed the positive feedback from the participants.
As he states in his article "Benefits of Full-scale Physical Models in Civil Engineering Education":
"Engineering students, usually, show a greater interest in topics which are demonstrated physically rather than those that are explained using the so-called ‘chalk and talk’ methods, that is, by oral presentations and blackboard/whiteboard/OHP. Also, students are motivated by hands-on experience and by linking concepts and physical models to real engineering problems."
The acronym DAD stands for Design, Assemble & Dismantle and summarizes what the activity is all about. The idea is that every year, students at the University of Surrey group themselves and use the components proposed by the organization to bring a full-scale structure to life.
First, the challenge proposes that students go through all stages of the design process, including conception, prepare all the necessary drawings, method statements, and risk assessments for construction.
Afterward, they swap projects with another group. They have to assemble and disassemble each other's designs using the available instructions. Also, they have to complete the task under a two-hour time limit. In the end, they produce a video about the experience.
The group's performances are assessed based on design creativity, building management skills, and safety considerations.
Figure: The assembly sequence created by one of the groups.
One of the project's main goals is to engage students in an active learning environment. The structure designed by the students is not as important as the process that leads to it. In other words, what matters for the DAD Project is the potential benefits of working with full-scale physical models in engineering education. Some of the advantages are the development of teamwork and communication skills, peer-to-peer learning, and the sense of accomplishment for the challenge itself, as this is the first experience of this kind for many of these students.
As explained by Dr. Behnejad: "Working with full-scale structures enables participants to learn about the practical considerations of designing a successful structure. The Project provides the ideal educational environment for developing the skills needed in architectural/structural engineering, such as interpreting other people’s ideas, teamwork, communication, and time management."
The benefits can also be expressed by the participants' experience, as Faith Omokhuale states: "The Project DAD gave us insight into many different aspects of an engineering project. We were able to understand more about conceptual design processes, the health and safety requirements, and how the principal contractor and designer can work together. The goal was to fix any queries and misunderstandings surrounding the design before building to ensure everyone has a good understanding of the project at hand."
Like many academic initiatives, DAD Project had to face the challenge of continuing its activities during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.
After all, how to respect social distancing while bringing an essentially hands-on group activity into the context of distance learning?
The solution was to send each student a Mola Structural Model kit so the initial meetings could take place remotely. Using Mola, it was possible to carry out prototyping and structural tests during the design stage, reducing face-to-face meetings to the construction stage with all appropriate social distancing rules.
Prof. Alireza Behnejad points out the following about the process: “During the COVID-19 pandemic, project meetings had to take place virtually and communicating design ideas was challenging. To overcome this, Marcio and I designed a specific Mola kit which was sourced from Brazil and sent to each Surrey student home address (in the UK and abroad) in January 2021 facilitating the design and exchange of ideas.
This helped the students to develop their ideas individually and then discuss with their group members in virtual meetings. Students complimented this initiative: ‘the Mola kits are excellent.’ Fortunately, the lockdown was eased in the UK prior to the full scaled construction in May 2021 and students could realise their structures as planned.”
As the in-person activities return in 2022, DAD Project keeps using the Mola kits at the design stage and plans to keep using them in the following years.
Since its first edition in 2014, the DAD Project has gradually expanded its frontiers. It has been replicated by student groups from the West Institute of Technology & Higher Education (Mexico), Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (Iran) and the University of São Paulo. Since 2018, Japan's Nohmura Foundation has been sponsoring DAD workshops at universities in China and Iran.
In Brazil, Dr. Ruy Marcelo Pauletti and Dr. Leila Cristina Meneghetti from the University of São Paulo adapted the DAD Project to create an experiment for students in the Structural Systems class at the School of Architecture and Urbanism. In this edition, they used small-scale physical models in the design stage to expand the freedom of geometric experimentation. Afterward, the students picked one of the projects to build in full-scale.
“These international collaborations are useful because they introduce more challenges to the project such as managing language, cultural and time differences – just like the real-life challenges that face international companies in the construction industry.”, explains Dr. Behnejad.
Recently, the DAD Project introduced a new full-scale teaching kit for tensile membrane structures. In addition, other kits are being developed for bamboo structures and ETFE (Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene) claddings. The international collaborations on the DAD Project are also expanding to more countries, including Nigeria and Syria.
We believe projects like the DAD Project are a great inspiration to incorporate more hands-on activities into structural teaching.
What did you think of the initiative? Do you want to try something like this at your university?
Paper by Prof. Alireza Behnejad: Benefits of Full-scale Physical Models in Civil Engineering Education
Case study by Prof. Alireza Behnejad: Challenging students to design, assemble and dismantle
Paper by Prof. Leila Cristina Meneghetti; Ruy Marcelo Pauletti and Luís Bitencourt about the activities of the DAD Project at USP: An academic experiment on the design of spatial truss models and teamwork
]]>Structural competitions are a tradition in universities. There is a good reason for this, as they are fun experiences that play a significant pedagogical role in bringing theoretical knowledge into practice.
Here, we'd like to suggest Mola as a way to make structural competitions even more interesting, playful and challenging.
The routine of studying structures can often be daunting. As passionate as we are about the topic, sometimes it's challenging to relate theory to practice and effectively visualize the physical phenomena and the behavior of structures in the real world.
A structural competition is an excellent way to put concepts learned in the classroom into practice. It increases interest in studying structures and develops essential skills for a professional career success such as teamwork, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving.
Besides, experimenting with models and challenging their limits in practice stimulates a structural intuition that is invaluable in professional life.
We cannot underestimate the importance of play as a means for learning, as Lego Foundation explains in its article "Learning Through Play":
"Research shows that different areas of learning are more interconnected than previously thought and that playful learning experiences can be particularly effective ways to foster deeper learning and develop a broad range of skills and an understanding of academic concepts."
A structural competition is a multidisciplinary experience that is fun, meaningful, socially interactive, actively engaging, and includes an iterative process. These are key features that make learning through play possible, as explained by Lego Foundation in their article.
"Evidence shows that engaging with the world through play is essential for learning early in life as well as for building the foundations for lifelong learning."
It's amusing to compete against colleagues, overcome challenges and, in the end, receive recognition in the form of an award. A structural competition can leave a mark as a deep learning experience and a fond memory of the academic years.
There are many different structural competitions, with spaghetti bridges contests being one of the most traditional. Although it is a lot of fun to use this material, there are some limitations to its use as a structure learning tool.
Mola Structural Kits are designed with structural concepts in mind from scratch and are scientifically validated. Its behavior is very similar to a real structure, so it is possible to experiment and learn about stability, buckling, cantilever, and many more concepts.
In 2016, the PET Civil students from the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF) in Brazil were the first to run a structural competition using Mola. Since then, a few more Brazilian institutions, such as the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), Federal University of Ceará (UFC), and Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU), successfully held Mola competitions. They replicated the idea, improved the formula, and received new and returning students eager to have more fun with structural learning.
Brena Oliveira, student and part of the organizing team of the UFC Mola MD Championship, helps to realize the benefits:
"We realized how interesting the competition is. In one of the phases, you have to classify [the types of] structures. However, students of the second period enrolled in our competition. The problem is that [in UFC's Engineering degree] you don't even learn the basics of structures in the second period. So, the competing students had to study previously to the championship, which was fundamental when they later arrived at the mechanics classes."
In 2019, the Brazilian Association of Structural Engineering and Consulting (ABECE) and Mola held together with PET Civil UFJF the first edition of a national-level Mola structural competition aimed at students of Engineering or Architecture courses.
Luara Batalha, Coordinator of Civil Engineering at SENAI CIMATEC, shares her experience participating as a team coordinator in the 1st ABECE Mola Challenge and the skills developed by students within the competition:
"Although we didn't win, we are very proud of the students and how they dedicated themselves to doing their best. We went through a training period in which they kept the kits and trained to assemble them as quickly as possible. The experience was very cool. These extension activities make students develop skills and competencies that are not 100% linked to class content but are extremely valuable professionally. We believe that these skills are important and that competitions help develop leadership, time management, empathy, and many other abilities."
Inspired by the competitions already held and based on the public notice of the 1st ABECE Mola Challenge, we put together a guide so you can create your Mola structural competition.
However, this is not a rulebook and does not intend to exhaust the topic. Each competition will have details related to the context of each institution. We are offering a collection of suggestions and ideas so that you can hold a Mola structural competition at your university.
Now, let's get into practice.
We suggest that the enrollment stage of the competition begins as early as possible to motivate students and allow them to get prepared.
Although it's recommended, students don't need to have previous experience with subjects that include the study of structures.
If students involved do not have experience, it's encouraged to form study groups with the support of Mola Structural Kits so they can become familiar with the basic concepts and characteristics of the physical model.
We advise that teams have 3 or 4 members, allowing effective participation and communication.
The elimination brackets are defined according to the number of teams registered. Here is an example of the brackets considering 8 teams registered. We'll use this arrangement as a reference to define the materials and activities from now on.
How many Mola sets you need depends on the planned challenges and the number of registered teams.
We are considering using 8 Mola 1, 8 Mola 2, and 4 Mola 3 for 8 teams. The variety of models increases the assemble possibilities, but it is also possible to run the competition with kits of a single model.
If you don't have as many Mola Structural Kits available, you can take turns. It's important, however, to limit the number of shifts to a minimum so that the wait time doesn't make students lose interest in the activity.
Below, we suggest activities and list the recommended kits per team in each challenge. We encourage adaptations according to the resources at hand.
Challenge: organization displays three structures assembled with Mola, and students have to classify them according to their degree of freedom (hypostatic, isostatic, or hyperstatic). The teams also have to make the theoretical model representation of the structure support types.
Materials: 1 Mola set to build and take photos of the structures for the test images. Here you can see the presentation created for the 1st ABECE Mola Challenge for reference.
Time limit: 10 minutes.
Scoring: 10 points for each correct answer. These points will be added to the score in Phase 2.
Classification: all teams advance to Phase 2.
Challenge: assembling a pre-defined structure in the shortest possible time. Design drawings are provided with visualizations of the top view, side views, and sections.
Materials: 1 Mola Structural Kit 1 and 1 Mola Structural Kit 2 per team.
Time limit: 15 minutes.
Scoring: the total time of 900 seconds (15 minutes) subtracted by the assembly time in seconds. For example, if the team takes 200 seconds, the score will be 700.
Classification: the 6 teams with the highest combined score from Phase 1 and Phase 2 advance to the next phase.
Challenge: disassembling a pre-defined structure, removing as many pieces as possible (one piece at a time) without collapsing. The team chooses a member responsible for removing the pieces and delivering them to the supervisor.
Materials: 1 Mola Structural Kit 1 and 1 Mola Structural Kit 2 per team to build the pre-defined structure.
Time limit: 15 minutes.
Scoring: number of elements removed from the structure's initial configuration, assigning 1 point for each removed piece. If the structure collapses, the removed part that causes the breakdown does not count on the scoreboard.
Classification: the 4 teams with the highest score advance to the next stage.
Challenge: building a bridge with the largest distance between supports. In other words, the largest free span. The structure must be designed to allow the passage of a miniature across the bridge deck and underneath it, perpendicular to the structure's longest axis. The groups can use as many pieces as necessary from the kits at hand for this phase.
Materials: 1 Mola Structural Kit 1, 1 Mola Structural Kit 2, and 1 Mola Structural Kit 3 per team.
Time limit: 20 minutes.
Scoring: the size of the free span.
Classification: the 2 teams with the highest score go to the finals. If less than 2 teams manage to complete the challenge, the team that succeeds will be qualified, and the others will have additional time to complete the activity until at least 2 groups can be eligible.
Challenge: in the finals, teams will compete to see who builds the tallest structure. This structure must also withstand 3 vibrations produced by a shaking table or by dropping objects of different weights on the surface where the structure is assembled. The organizing committee will define the intensity and time between vibrations.
Materials: 2 Mola Structural Kit 1 and 2 Mola Structural Kit 2.
Time limit: 20 minutes.
Scoring: the structure's height. If the structure collapses at the vibration stage, we suggest applying a penalty.
Qualification: the team with the highest score wins the Mola structural competition.
The prize plays a vital role as a materialization of the achievement made by the students. It's valuable that the trophies or medals are appealing and that each student can take something home after the event.
A cash prize is recommended but not required. If possible, it's also interesting to offer some reward that helps the students in their studies, such as books or maybe a Mola Structural Kit to study at home.
We want to see many more students and professors creating playful experiences to study structures. So, if you run a Mola structural competition, let us know in the comments or send us an email. It will surely brighten our day and inspire more professors and students to create their events to encourage the study of structures worldwide.
If you want some additional information about Mola competitions and learning through hands-on activities, here are some helpful resources.
The public notice of the 1st ABECE Mola Challenge
The notice of the Mola MD Championship [In Portuguese]
Master’s thesis with the validation of the behavior of Mola model: "Modelo Estrutural Qualitativo para Pré-Avaliação do Comportamento de Estruturas Metálicas" [In Portuguese]
Lego's Foundation article "Learning Through Play"
Undergraduate thesis "Revisión histórica de una actividad e innovación docente en el ámbito universitario: Concurso de Estructuras" [In Spanish]
]]>SEAONC is the Structural Engineers Association of Northern California, an association created to advance structural engineering practice, build community among members, and educate the public regarding the structural engineering profession.
In 2021, SEAONC's Public Outreach Committee successfully hosted three Structural Engineering Workshops with high school students in partnership with local chapters of NSBE Jr. (National Society Of Black Engineers) and SHPE Jr (Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers).
Despite the initial intention of making an in-person event, they had to change plans and hosted online workshops due to the pandemics.
"Truss Your Instincts", as they called the first workshop, took place in June. It started with an introduction to structural engineering with information about the field and the career, discussions about terminology, and how architects, engineers, and contractors collaborate to create safe and sustainable buildings.
SEAONC sent Mola Structural Kits to the students at their homes and the voluntary mentors used them to convey fundamental concepts in applied sciences and engineering at the hands-on stage of the workshop, such as in-plane and out-of-plane stability, buckling, diaphragms, differences between moment and braced frames, natural frequency of buildings, and common soft-story failures in the Bay Area.
As SEAONC states, "the primary learning objectives were breaking down complex real-world problems into smaller, more manageable problems that can be solved through engineering, evaluating solutions based on cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics, as well as possible social, cultural, and environmental impacts, and understanding structural behaviors to refine the structure and eliminate any negative behaviors."
About the structure of the event, they explain further: "the workshop was divided into three parts of increasing complexity, starting with a demonstration of general stability principles on a 2D portal frame, further developing 3D portal and braced frames and finally, building a 3-story model of a single bay from One Maritime Plaza Tower in San Francisco."
Context is a vital component of learning. Using a building they already knew as an example brings the structural concepts closer to the students, deepening their understanding. It's important to notice how SEAONC used their cultural, historical and social experiences to make abstract concepts much more tangible and easy to learn.
Another example of this approach is the use of the San Francisco Bay Bridge to demonstrate how truss structures work.
After experimenting with the app "Build a Bridge" and trying to complete some construction challenges inside the app, they had some time to get back to more hands-on activities, now free to apply different loads and see how their truss structures react.
The second event took place on December 11th and after thoughtful consideration about safety, they decided to host a virtual workshop again, incorporating lessons learned and improvements from previous experience.
Volunteers were watchful to guarantee all teenagers were enjoying and absorbing the content properly. If they noticed someone was struggling, one of the mentors created a breakout room to help that student individually. Questions solved, they returned to the group room. And at specific points of the activity, they asked poll questions to keep the students engaged and foster interaction.
The activities focused on trusses, force members, tension and compression. To apply what the teenagers learned, SEAONC challenged them to use Mola Structural Kits to build truss bridges with the longest span length.
Also in December, SEAONC partnered with SHPE Jr. and held an in-person event (this time, called "Frame Of Thrones") with due health precautions.
Besides the introduction to structural engineering and to structural concepts, this time they promoted a competition where each group had to build the tallest structure with Mola Structural Kits. After that, they tested the structure on a shake table. The most resilient was the winner.
One of the most impressive details of these projects is that SEAONC gifts every young participant with the Mola Structural Kit they used in the activity. This is a great way to encourage young students to keep practicing and have fun learning about structures.
Now the Committee is improving the support material for the events, creating documents and visual guides to create more activities and challenges to make the workshops even more fun. We'd like to thank Martina Sbicca and Derek Avrit for the collaboration, giving us every information about the projects, and for the courtesy of giving us the images that illustrate this article.
We love to see Mola Structural Kits used to inspire the youth and allow the public to understand the role of structural engineers in society.
]]>The project is located at Santa Cruz dos Navegantes, a small district in Guarujá, Brazil, with approximately 6000 inhabitants, connected with the city by a small wharf. Recently, the vicinity was revitalized, but not this specific area. This made the students see an opportunity to bring enhancements to the population of this region.
With three buildings shaded by a unique brise soleil spread along 180 meters, Uçaúna Station is a large-scale biological research center, with a convention center and also an upgraded wharf in the place of the one already existent.
Based on English High-Tech structural concepts and the system of cranes in the harbor, the upper module concentrates all the tie rods effort on the top of the column. It transfers the load to a tamping system fixed to the foundation. This allows the cover mesh to move avoiding stress in the connections.
Utilizing biomimetic architecture principles, the structure takes inspiration from the crab uçaúna, and it's built with modules of six meters to make transport and building faster, cost-effective, and sustainable. The project uses this modular and lightweight steel structure intending to be durable, a solution aligned with the Health and Well Being competition theme, which is inspired by the United Nations 2030's Agenda for Sustainable Development.
"The project has a high degree of development throughout its spectrum, highlighting the use of steel and, above all, structural typological research, where an interaction between industrial design, structure, and architecture is noted, thus achieving a comprehensive and contemporary project", says the examining board of the competition.
To understand how the structure would react with the conditions presented, the team used Mola Structural Kits. As Marcelo says, "Mola was perfect for simulating what we had in mind, as it is also modular and lightweight. It truly simulates all the characteristics of a well-made steel structure."
Marcelo's parents are also architects and supporters since the crowdfunding of Mola Structural Kit 1. "I always had an interest in objects you can assemble and had contact with Mola before I even decided to be an architect. This foundation was essential to the project."
Marcelo and Rafael are already taking opportunities coming with the competition and are looking for financial support to build Uçaúna Station.
It's part of our mission to inspire the next generation of city shapers. That’s why it's so rewarding to see Mola Structural Model used to support innovative projects capable of impacting a whole community and winning contests like this.
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