Use of Structured Overarching Problems in Sophomore-Level Mechanics Courses

restructured its sophomore mechanics courses to present topics in a more integrated sequence.Courses in the classical areas of Statics, Mechanics of Solids, and Civil Engineering Materials were repackaged into a pair of four-credit mechanics courses which combine content from these areas.The first course (Mechanics I) integrates elements of Statics and Mechanics of Solids along with a few topics from Civil Engineering Materials.The second course (Mechanics II) integrates the remaining elements of Mechanics of Solids with the majority of Civil Engineering Materials.A key pedagogical component in this curricular restructuring is the use of "overarching problems".The integrated content delivery allows for the full development of commonly encountered problems in civil engineering within mechanics courses at the sophomore year.For example, students are able to use the Statics concepts of equilibrium and truss analysis, along with the Mechanics of Solids concepts of stress, axial deformation, and factor of safety, and the Civil Engineering Materials concepts of steel material behavior, to analyze a decaying steel truss bridge in need of repair and retrofit.Other overarching problems from these courses include the analysis of a concrete gravity dam, the design of a water tower for a Third World country, analysis and material selection for a prestressed concrete highway bridge, the strengthening of wood I-beams using composite materials, and the 3-D analysis of a highway sign structure under combined loading.This paper describes in detail how overarching problems are used in these courses, from their brief introduction at the beginning of lecture periods to the individual student solutions in a recitation-type period.Lessons learned from the first year of using overarching problems are presented.Pedagogical benefits associated with the use of overarching problems are discussed, and initial assessment results are described.