Bridge Engineering Visualization
I have been busy grading the first exam for my class. I have 92 students and I spend about 10 minutes a test, so 920 minutes to grade. (15.33 hours!) Needless to say it is taking a long time when grading is coupled with eight hours of work, teaching and family…
On a side note I wish I could go to this!
A few days old but a bridge collapsed in Delhi, constructed for the Commonwealth games. It looks like it collapsed under the weight of wet concrete being placed for the deck.
A little bit of old news about a small pedestrian bridge in Seattle. Can you make it look good?
quote:
Local Artist Amaranta Ibarra-Sandys is working with South Park residents to create a design that represents and reflects the people who use the bridge.
Update:
Not exactly what I had in mind but good for kids.
Not much blogging in the next few days, I have three days of “training” on LRFD design of drilled shafts and the first concrete exam for my class!
Taking a three day seminar is very difficult for me. Just sitting for eight hours is tough but throw in a canned course (one that has to appeal to a large audience) and it is just down right boring. The information is worthwhile but I think I would get more out of it, if I could just spend a few hours with the instructors asking questions. (Obviously it makes me think about my own teaching style.)
These types of courses have developed a system which they believe will accelerate learning.
Steps:
1) Have an overview slide of what you will cover.
2) Explain the concept.
3) have a short exercise to reinforce the concept. (simple calculations)
4) sum up, quiz the audience about what was in the lesson. (Bueller, Bueller… look it up)
Sounds reasonable but I hate it. Imagine a room full of professional engineers, given all the powerpoint slides for the course, and taught like school children. Yes I am a bad audience, but I am a great student. Give me the course textbook and I will know it by tomorrow. I just cannot stand sitting (ha) for eight hours and being frowned at by the instructors because I did not fill in the blanks on one of the exercise handout slides! Anarchy in the U.K.!
So why do I take the class? Not to learn but for the required “professional development hours” mandated by my state to keep my P.E. license….45 PDHs every two years.. 1 hour, 1 PDH.
So can you stand PDH engineering classes? I hate them.
Life is fairly complicated right now, with some family members going through some tough times financially. (I’m helping as best I can.)
I’m tired of office politics, poor management decisions and where I live. Just another Monday! I need something…
I saw this Waco Texas bridge on the internet while surfing around and I thought it was pretty cool.
From wikipedia,
The Waco Suspension Bridge crosses the Brazos River in Waco, Texas. It is a single-span suspension bridge with a main span of 475 feet (145 m). Opened in 1869, it contains nearly 3 million bricks. It is located north of Downtown Waco, connecting Indian Springs Park with M.L.K Jr. Park, which is north of the Brazos. Every year on Independence Day, the bridge serves as a place where thousands of locals gather to watch fireworks.
Mosque’s have been in the news lately. I’m all for building them but maybe not on a bridge.
cbc.ca
From the very liberal blog, DailyKos.com