The TU Delft first-year aerospace engineering course, "Design and Construction," aims to bridge theoretical knowledge with practical application through challenge-based learning. Involving 400 students across 40 teams, the course integrates concepts from mechanics, materials science, and engineering drawing into realistic design projects. The first project tasks students with designing a Rocker-Bogie suspension system for a Mars rover. To enhance student engagement and understanding, a complementary activity called Mission MARIJN was introduced in the 2023-2024 academic year. Mission MARIJN includes three immersive hands-on activities: a remote-controlled 1:4 scale model of the Perseverance rover, an educational exhibit on Martian terrain, and a virtual reality experience featuring previous Mars rovers. Grounded in instructional design principles such as guided inquiry and experiential learning, these activities deepen students' grasp of design requirements and mechanical systems. Survey results from participating students indicate positive learning outcomes, with particular success in the VR and rover modelling segments. This paper presents the design, implementation, and impact of Mission MARIJN as a replicable model for enhancing engineering education through interactive, context-driven learning experiences.

As part of the Delft University of Technology's (TU Delft) bachelor programmes, mechanics courses are provided across 7 out of its 8 faculties by more than 70 mechanics lecturers. Yet, mechanics is considered a difficult subject to teach, with lecturers reporting that they have limited time and resources to assess and improve their teaching practice. Moreover, these lecturers are seldom connected. The lack of collaboration and exchange between the mechanics lecturers has resulted in limited peer-to-peer support and hindered the development of shared mechanics teaching competence. To tackle these challenges, the PRogramme for Innovation in MECHanics education (PRIMECH) was launched at TU Delft in 2021. In this paper, PRIMECH's solution is discussed: the introduction of the Mechanics Teachers Social Club, an inter-faculty Community of Practice (CoP), built around the shared domain of interest of teaching mechanics and improving students' conceptual understanding. The CoP aims to enhance lecturers' awareness of best teaching practices and foster collaboration on new educational projects. Within this CoP, lecturers are encouraged to share teaching materials, discuss pedagogical approaches, and share advice towards achieving this goal.

A laboratory demonstration for a Stability of Structures course is presented, consisting in the buckling test of two cylindrical shells: a 3 D-printed and a composite cylinder. The learning outcomes have been formulated by comparing what can be learnt from theoretical lessons and buckling tests. The activity follows the Interactive Lecture Demonstration approach. Main results show that the activity helped students’ understanding of shell buckling and it increased their enthusiasm for the topic. This demonstration is easily implementable, and the presented step-by-step development methodology provides guidelines to develop similar activities for different engineering subjects.

Structural Mechanics (SM) is a fundamental subject in engineering bachelor curricula. Since experimental investigations play a central role in the discipline, laboratory practice is often present in SM courses. Many instructors recognize in laboratory activities, not only a way to develop laboratory skills and appreciation of the scientific method, but also a chance to reinforce students’ conceptual understanding of the discipline. However, there is evidence that laboratory instruction is not always successful in achieving conceptual understanding. To address this problem, the goal of the presented study is to investigate how laboratory activities can be designed to support students' conceptual understanding of SM. First, the disciplinary body of knowledge is analysed through Johnstone’s model of multilevel thought. In SM, as in Physics and in Chemistry, phenomena are analysed at different scales: the phenomenological level, the invisible level, and the symbolic level. The understanding of most Structural Mechanics concepts relies on linking the phenomenological world to the underlying invisible world using symbolic representations such as equations, diagrams, experimental data plots, and physics models. To transition and translate between “levels of thoughts” and understand SM concepts, representational competence and abilities in model-based reasoning are needed. In the next paragraphs, a review of successful studies from similar subjects is presented, where the learning activities targeted representations and model reasoning in laboratory settings. The findings are summarised in a set of design guidelines to help instructors develop successful laboratory learning activities for SM.