EXPERIMENTAL TEACHING IN WOOD TECHNOLOGY

The purpose of this work is to present certain procedures and equipments that were implemented in the course of Xilology and Wood Technology held at the University of Padua. The objective was to offer to the students the opportunity to directly attend some experiments, usually explained only in theory. In the first level degree course in Wood Technology and Timber Industry, the course of Xilology and Wood Technology ranges from biological characteristics of the wood material up to its physical and mechanical performance, a wide review with the intended purpose to form wood technologists. In the course program wide spaces should be left to the practise and applicative aspects, from microscopic observations of woody plant tissues to physical and mechanical properties determinations. The experimental educational approach, as known, helps the understanding of content and, above all, allows to understand the mechanisms underlying the experiments. However, the need to combine educational activities with practical experience done directly by the students in a conventional classroom, crashes with the difficulty concerning the equipment and the time required for carrying out the experience. The equipment required for a basic exercise in wood technology range from common laboratory equipment, normally present in educational Faculty workshops, to sophisticated and specific test machines, expensive and used only by properly trained technicians. Here we present simple equipment, specially set up for student self use, designed to carry out static tests on wood samples in order to determine the mechanical parameters module of rupture and module of elasticity in an easy and safe way. From the other way, some determinations can not be carried out in the classroom because they require an incompatible time period for the educational programming of the lessons. For example in the study of the relations between wood and water, it is necessary to completely dehydrate wood. This operation is, in the proper way, conducted in an oven and requires a long time (1-4 days). In order to perform determinations related to wood water content is here explained a set up procedure that runs through microwave drying, that produces certain results in a lower time.