Learning Statics by Visualizing Forces on the Example of a Physical Model of a Truss

Abstract

The article presents a new didactic tool helping in teaching the structures of students of the Faculty of Architecture. It is an attempt to solve the problem related to the difficulties in teaching structural systems among students of architecture. In the beginning, examples of Graphic-Statics tools supporting an intuitive understanding of the construction work are presented. Then a physical model of the truss was implemented, which responsively presents the values of internal forces using the colors of the luminous bars. The main part of the article describes the design elements of the truss model and presents how it works. Then, the influence of the model on the education of architecture students was checked by means of a questionnaire study. The results showed the great educational usefulness of the proposed solution.