Engineering students are best able to understand theory when one explains it in relation to realistic problems and its practical applications. Teaching theory in isolation has led to lower levels of comprehension and motivation and a correspondingly higher rate of failure. At Queensland University of Technology, a number of new methods have been introduced recently to improve the teaching and learning of steel structural design at undergraduate level. In the basic steel structures subject a project-based teaching method was introduced in which the students were required to analyze, design and build the lightest/most efficient steel columns for a given target capacity. A design assignment involving simple, but real structures was also introduced in the basic steel structures subject. Both these exercises simulated realistic engineering problems from the early years of the course and produced a range of benefits. Improvements to the teaching and learning were also made through integration of a number of related structural engineering subjects and by the introduction of animated computer models and laboratory models. This paper presents the details of all these innovative methods which improved greatly the students’ understanding of the steel structures design process.