Aiming at turning theory of structures into a captivating subject to civil engineering students and at helping them understand the link between the mathematical models and the real structures, a new experience is underway at the Department of Structural and Foundation Engineering of Excola Politecnica da Universidada de Sao Paulo: transparencies are being used to introduce visually some of the first concepts of theory of structures. Transparencies introducing the concept of structure, transparencies presenting the historical evolution of civil engineering structures and transparencies showing the relation between the mathematical models and the real structures were produced. These transparencies were used for the first time in 1997, with great success. This paper presents the details of this experience. (Author/YDS)