Riley, C. E., & St.Clair, S. (2012, June), Responses to an Unfamiliar Thing: How Learning About a Structural Sculpture Can Make It More Appealing  Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--21882

\bibitem{asee_peer_21882}
  Riley, C. E., \& St.Clair, S. (2012, June), \emph{Responses to an Unfamiliar Thing: How Learning About a Structural Sculpture Can Make It More Appealing}
  Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, San Antonio, Texas.
  10.18260/1-2--21882

Charles E. Riley and Sean St.Clair.  "Responses to an Unfamiliar Thing: How Learning About a Structural Sculpture Can Make It More Appealing".  2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas, 2012, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2012.  https://peer.asee.org/21882 Internet.  28 Mar, 2023

\bibitem{asee_peer_21882}
  Charles E. Riley and Sean St.Clair.
  "Responses to an Unfamiliar Thing: How Learning About a Structural Sculpture Can Make It More Appealing".
  \emph{2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, San Antonio, Texas, 2012, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2012.
  https://peer.asee.org/21882 Internet.  28 Mar, 2023

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_21882
author = "Charles E. Riley and Sean St.Clair"
title = "Responses to an Unfamiliar Thing: How Learning About a Structural Sculpture Can Make It More Appealing"
booktitle = "2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2012"
month = "June"
address = "San Antonio, Texas"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/21882}
number = {10.18260/1-2--21882}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -      Responses to an Unfamiliar Thing: How Sculpture can be Used to Teach Social, Technical, and                                      Environmental ConceptsA collaboratively conceived and designed engineering teaching sculpture was recently installed at asmall teaching-oriented engineering college. What began as an attempt to bring the AISC SteelConnections Teaching Sculpture to campus ultimately resulted in a unique structure that is acombination of a suspended place-based metaphor supported by cables and structural steel towerscontaining many of the connections from the original, oft-used AISC sculpture. The sculpture provides apoignant centerpiece for the civil engineering department as well as a platform for teaching structuralanalysis and design concepts throughout the curriculum. On the one hand, it is a practical teaching tool:providing a bold introduction to heavy steel construction, serving as an effective visualization tool forteaching three dimensional vectors and forces via the various cable supports, and presenting to thestudents the various types of steel connections in a highly specialized setting that encourages both thevisualization of and interaction with the steel connection elements. On the other hand, it contains aprofound metaphor for a bioregion grappling with scarce water resources and declining environmentalquality: a visual expression of consensus, of shared responsibility and balanced interests. It is a practicalpiece of art wherein water is precariously held both in equilibrium and a constant state of tension.This paper will present a study that aimed to determine whether this unique sculpture could be used todevelop in aspiring engineers a combination of social, environmental, and technical curiosity. In additionto its practical and obvious teaching possibilities toward the technical, could the sculpture—which is sostriking visually that one can’t help but ask questions such as “What is it?”, “Why is it here?”, and “Whatis it for?”—also be used to encourage the development of new, non-technical ideas that are social,environmental, or political in nature? To answer this question, the authors conducted a number ofsurveys to determine observers’ views of and attitudes toward the sculpture. Participants includedstudents of varying ranks and backgrounds, technical and otherwise. Students were initially surveyed todetermine their attitudes toward the sculpture (ranking it on aesthetics, appropriateness, practical useas a teaching tool, and the possibility of gleaning deeper meaning from it). Students were then given apresentation on both the technical teaching merits of the sculpture and the geocentric environmentalmetaphor. The same survey was conducted after the presentation to determine if an understanding ofthe artist’s technical and philosophical vision influenced attitudes toward the art. The results of thesesurveys, along with a detailed explanation of the sculpture’s inception, design, construction, and status,are presented in this paper.
AU  - Charles E. Riley
AU  - Sean St.Clair
CY  - San Antonio, Texas
DA  - 2012/06/10
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Responses to an Unfamiliar Thing: How Learning About a Structural Sculpture Can Make It More Appealing
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/21882
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--21882
ER  -