Students will have a brief introduction to the beginnings of bridge design starting with the ancient aqueducts, moving into stronger steel bridges and suspension bridges. Students will discuss what Engineers have to think about in planning the building of a bridge using vocabulary words like tension and compression. Students will then become civil engineers and experience the design and assembly of a bridge that they can travel across. (Appropriate for most grade levels. K-2nd grade students may need extra assistance.)
Demo Time: 45-60 minutes
Student Activity 1: Students work in pairs to experience compression and tension.
Student Activity 2: Students work with our Wizard to build a giant bridge that they can then test.
Technology Standards: Strand: Society and Technology
Topic 1: Demonstrate an understanding of technology’s impact on the advancement of humanity – economically, environmentally and ethically.
Math Standards: Geometry
1.G.1: Distinguish between defining attributes, e.g., triangles are closed and three-sided, versus non-defining attributes, e.g., color, orientation, overall size; build and draw shapes that possess defining attributes.
1.G.2: Compose two-dimensional shapes (rectangles, squares, trapezoids, triangles, half-circles, and quarter-circles) or three dimensional shapes (cubes, right rectangular prisms, right circular cones, and right circular cylinders) to create a composite shape, and compose new shapes from the composite shape. Students do not need to learn formal names such as "right rectangular prism."
2.G.1:Partition a rectangle into rows and columns of same -size squares and count to find the total number of them.