Material mechanics is an important course for civil engineering specialties in universities and colleges. We carried out teaching reform on material mechanics course based on actual situation of the third stage undergraduate students of civil engineering. At the same time, problems existing in the teaching course were also considered. Engineering ideas, as the new teaching theory, were studied from several aspects, including update of teaching material, optimization of teaching outline, construction of engineering case database, and application of teaching handouts for padding. The results show that students’ learning interest and the teaching effect are improved, which verifies that the curriculum system based on engineering ideas is suitable for the actual situation of the third stage undergraduate students of civil engineering.