Abstract
This paper shows a teaching experience related to the use of computed tomography in the teaching of concrete for undergraduate students of the civil engineering degree. This experience reveals that computed tomography is a powerful tool to facilitate the understanding of all those aspects related to the microstructure of concrete, thus facilitating comprehension of the correlation between the microstructure and its macroscopic response. In addition, students showed a greater motivation and interest in the subject, which promotes better academic learning. A pilot test was carried out to evaluate the viability of these practices and to analyze the teaching impact of this activity. The results show that students were very interested in the use of new technologies in teaching and, more particularly, in the use of computed tomography. The students satisfactorily received the project. A greater motivation of the students in the subject was also observed, which resulted in better grades when compared with those of previous courses. The results reveal that the average grade of the students rose by around 8%, and a higher percentage of students achieved higher scores when compared to the previous five years.
Highlights
The use of new and emerging technologies for teaching purposes may often represent an advance in teaching methodologies and student learning [1,2]
Once the students have become familiar with the technique of computed tomography, they carry out a series of practices in which they study different concepts related to the microstructure of concrete, based on the information provided by computed tomography
This paper shows the teaching experience of the authors in the use of computed tomography for teaching the subject of structural concrete in the studies of the degree of civil engineering
Summary
The use of new and emerging technologies for teaching purposes may often represent an advance in teaching methodologies and student learning [1,2]. Starting in the 1980s, it began to be used in many other fields of science such as, for example, paleontology [41,42], archaeology and historical heritage [43,44], metals and composites [45,46,47,48], rocks [49,50], or concrete [51,52,53,54,55,56,57], among others At this point, it should be emphasized that there are significant differences between a computed tomography scanner for medical purposes and another for scientific and industrial research. This paper shows some teaching experiences related to the use of computed tomography within Civil Engineering studies, and within the subject of Structural.
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