Teach Engineering: Stress, Strain and Hooke's Law

This instructional activity offers an introduction to Hooke's Law as well as stress-strain relationships. Students will first learn the governing equations. Then students will work through several example problems first individually, then as a class. In addition, the instructional activity includes a two-part associated activity. In the first part, students explore Hooke's law by experimentally determining an unknown spring constant. In the second part, students will apply what they've learned to create a strain graph depicting a tumor using Microsoft Excel. Finally, the instructional activity includes an attached stress-strain quiz to assess each student's knowledge following the activities.