Teaching Physics for developing the basic professional training of the mechanical engineer: Simple machines

Abstract

Mechanical engineering is based on the principles of applied Physics whose cognitive and procedural foundations constitute the essence of the functioning of any mechanism. The current improvement of Higher Education (Study Plan E) requires
that this basic science responds to the professional ways of acting including the study of simple machines. As a necessity of the subjects taught by the teachers of the Department of Mechanics, the students should be able to recognize and describe from
their first year of study, the basic composition of the mechanisms, useful content to receive the Applied Mechanics Discipline. Therefore, it was decided to teach the content related to simple machines using the same problematic situations that are
traditionally provided by textbooks, with contextual modifications and of reasoning. The descriptive qualitative research allowed to identify that Physics teachers do not approach this topic frequently and a methodology was proposed for highlighting the role of simple machines: pulleys, levers, inclined plane, wedges, the screw and the wheel, to facilitate their experimental assembly, with solutions that make thinking more complex and increase creativity and innovation which are engineers’ inherent qualities. As a result, a compendium of problem situations that will allow Physics teachers to didactically orientate themselves on how to conduct the learning of Physics by teaching simple machines is being created.