TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Building Our Bridge to Fun!
Students identify different bridge designs and construction materials used in modern day engineering. They work in construction teams to create paper bridges and spaghetti bridges based on existing bridge designs. Students progressively...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Straw Bridges
Working as engineering teams, students design and create model beam bridges using plastic drinking straws and tape as their construction materials. Their goal is to build the strongest bridge with a truss pattern of their own design,...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Building Towards the Future
This curricular unit introduces students to basic Civil Engineering concepts in an exciting and interactive manner. Bridges and skyscrapers, the two most visible products of Civil Engineers, will be discussed in depth. Students will have...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Bridges That Can Take a Shake!
Building a bridge in San Francisco has to take into account the possibilites of earthquakes. This Science Buddies science project asks that you use different virtual bridge designs to withstand virtual earthquakes. The Science Buddies...
PBS
Pbs: Who Builds Big
Who Builds Big? Learn about careers in engineering and architecture. Scroll to the bottom for more links in this PBS series to find about individuals who build bridges, domes, skyscrapers, dams, and tunnels.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Construction Technologies: Construct the Strongest Bridge
In this activity, students will work in pairs to create three simple types of bridges. They will observe quantitatively how the bridges work under load and why engineers use different types of bridges for different places. They also will...
Other
Sprk: Sphero Bridge Stem Challenge [Pdf]
SPRK STEM challenges are fun, interactive activities that challenge students to use creativity and team-work to move through simple steps of the design process in order to build Sphero-based creations. In this challenge students will...
PBS
Pbs: Building Big: Bridges
A collection of resources about bridges that includes basic facts about bridges, challenges faced by bridge builders, famous bridges from around the world, and a lab that helps you understand how different forces affect bridge...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Bridges
Through a five-lesson series that includes numerous hands-on activities, students are introduced to the importance and pervasiveness of bridges for connecting people to resources, places and other people, with references to many...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: The Effect of Bridge Design on Weight Bearing Capacity
This Science Buddies project asks that you identify different kinds of bridges, discover why they are built as they are, and then build three different bridges of your own out of balsa wood. See which one you think can bear the heaviest...
Other
Whiting School of Engineering: Spaghetti Bridge
An engineering project where students construct a bridge from spaghetti and glue. Site includes guidelines, pictures, and movies of previous projects.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Cost Comparisons
Students learn about the many types of expenses associated with building a bridge. Working like engineers, they estimate the cost for materials for a bridge member of varying sizes. After making calculations, they graph their results to...
Other
University of Bristol: Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge disaster was caused by wind vibrations. Wind in a valley spanned by the Tacoma Narrows Bridge causes the bridge to vibrate so much it collapsed. Shows pictures of the bridge as it is collapsing.
Other
Lincoln Public Schools: Applied Technology & Engineering: Bridge Busters [Pdf]
In this activity, students design and build the lightest bridge to support the heaviest load. They investigate different bridge designs and building materials, learn key terminology, and test their prototypes in order to meet the...
The Tech Interactive
The Tech Museum of Innovation: Bridging the Gap [Pdf]
Can your team build the appropriate bridge to fit the needs of various terrains? In this instructional activity, students will build an assigned bridge in order to increase knowledge of various types of bridges. Students will then engage...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Keeping You in Suspens(ion)
Find out the different strengths of two types of bridges, beam and suspension, by building your own. This Science Buddies science project gives you the means to find out. The Science Buddies project ideas are set up consistently...
Other
University of Cincinnati: Project Step: Build a Bridge
In this two-period lesson, students work in teams to focus on the real-world application of bridge design and construction based on capacity, cost, and aesthetics.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Bridge Types: Tensile & Compressive Forces
Students explore how tension and compression forces act on three different bridge types. Using sponges, cardboard and string, they create models of beam, arch and suspension bridges and apply forces to understand how they disperse or...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Truss Destruction
Students work within constraints to construct model trusses and then test them to failure as a way to evaluate the relative strength of different truss configurations and construction styles. Each student group uses Popsicle sticks and...
PBS
Pbs Building Big: The Skyscraper Challenge
A site for all users interested in the engineering behind the building. Site engages users in a job that requires them to investigate troubled buildings and then figure out how to fix them.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Natural Frequency and Buildings
Students learn about frequency and period, particularly natural frequency using springs. They learn that the natural frequency of a system depends on two things: the stiffness and mass of the system. Students see how the natural...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Feel the Stress
Working individually or in groups, students explore the concept of stress (compression) through physical experience and math. They discover why it hurts more to poke themselves with mechanical pencil lead than with an eraser. Then they...
Cornell University
Cornell University: Cornell Center for Materials Research: The Physics of Bridges [Pdf]
Young scholars incorporate their knowledge of civil engineering and physics principles as they design and build a bridge within certain parameters while choosing their own materials.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Spaghetti Bridge
Civil engineers design and construct structures such as buildings, dams, and bridges. We can explore the field of engineering by making a bridge using spaghetti. This bridge is then tested based on the weight it can carry without breaking.