Bridges are a popular topic in this journal, because they are a very visual display of static and dynamic physical principles. In this paper, we provide an intuitive derivation of the equations associated with suspension bridge cables and load-bearing arches, which is of pedagogical interest in illustrating the consequences of Newton's laws for…

Purpose: The built environment is responsible for approximately 40% of the world's energy consumption, 30% of raw material use, 25% of solid waste, 25% of water use, 12% of land use and 33% of greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, environmental improvement and decarbonization are becoming increasingly critical objectives for the construction industry.…

Intuition is the first way humans get knowledge. A worker in making a traditional West Java house works using his experience to be able to determine how many building materials are needed to become a house. The roof of the house is one part that is quite complicated to determine the amount of wood needed. Workers using intuition based on…

Technology and Engineering Education (T&EE) includes "engineering design challenges" to establish a connection to designing and problem-solving indicative of being an Engineer. Engineering design challenges involving bridges (or towers) have been a common feature of the discipline. These bridge design challenges ask students to…

The authors challenged their second grade students to design and build a small house for a Skylander toy character that would be economical, yet able to withstand "the elements of wind and rain." While this social studies (economics)/science/math integrated project was completed with second grade students, the lessons presented in this…

Last summer, the author finally acted on an idea that had been banging around in his head for the last couple of years. He decided to build his son a toolbox and equip it with the basic set of tools he'd need as a future homeowner. Thinking that other technology educators and their students might be interested in the project, the author describes…

This article presents the results of a case involving the application of project-based learning carried out with students in the Mechanical Engineering degree program at the University of Girona. The project, entitled "Design and construction of a wooden bridge", was conducted at the Polytechnic School in the third-year Structures…

We describe the development and evaluation of a virtual steel sculpture for engineering education. A good connection design requires the engineer to have a solid understanding of the mechanics and steel behavior. To help students better understand various connection types, many schools have acquired steel sculptures. A steel sculpture is a…

At Jefferson County Vocational School (JCVS) in Bloomingdale, Ohio, students get a lesson on building green with the construction of a home in the school's subdivision. The home is being built using Energy Star guidelines so that it may be identified as an Energy Star home. The goal for the Jefferson County Vocational Schools Board of Education…

Steel connections play important roles in the integrity of a structure, and many structural failures are attributed to connection failures. Connections are the glue that holds a structure together. The failures of the Hartford Coliseum in 1977, the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City in 1980, and the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis in 2007 are all…

This article stresses the importance of building design above technology as a relatively inexpensive way to reduce energy costs for a library. Emphasis is placed on passive solar design for heat and daylighting, but also examines passive ventilation and cooling, green roofs, and building materials. Passive design is weighed against technologies…

The construction industry is contributing to the sustainability agenda through numerous strategies to improve energy efficiency in the design, materials, and operating conditions of buildings. However, this is only one driver of change in the construction sector. This article, which takes Australia as a case study, shows that many other drivers…

School design utilizing integrated architectural and structural precast and prestressed concrete components has gained greater acceptance recently for numerous reasons, including increasingly sophisticated owners and improved learning environments based on material benefits such as: sustainability, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, storm…

Asphalt concrete pavements are inherently graded viscoelastic structures. Oxidative aging of asphalt binder and temperature cycling due to climatic conditions being the major cause of non-homogeneity. Current pavement analysis and simulation procedures dwell on the use of layered approach to account for these non-homogeneities. The conventional…

The Rural Studio, an outreach program of Auburn University, designs innovative houses for poor people living in Alabama's Hale County by using "junk" such as car windshields, carpet tiles, baled cardboard, and old license plates. The article theorizes this particular architecture in terms of Critical Regionalism, developed by…