Emerging engineering education is a new paradigm of engineering education reform in China, and it is of practical significance to carry out the reform of first-class course teaching mode under this background. Teaching practice shows that the lack of effectiveness in shaping the value of professional courses and the lack of students’ ability to solve complex engineering problems are two prominent problems in the construction of first-class courses in civil engineering. Starting with ideological and political education, this paper expounds the overall design of ideological and political education, the teaching practice and the design ideas of ideological and political elements for soil mechanics course. Then, by means of case teaching method that promotes the cultivation of practical ability, this paper discusses the selection principle of typical engineering teaching cases of soil mechanics, and the case teaching method combining virtuality with reality. The research results are of reference value for promoting the construction of first-class courses in civil engineering under the background of emerging engineering education.