Curated OER
Put Your Truss in Building Bridges
Students apply abstract concepts, such as stress, fulcrums, the law of gravity, and the strength of different geometric shapes. Groups of student contractors operate simulated architectural firms to create strong, economical bridges.
Curated OER
Build a Cardboard Bridge That Can Hold Potatoes
Students identify the characteristics of a bridge and build with junk materials. In this bridge building activity, students use cereal boxes, paper towel or toilet paper tubes and tape to create their bridges. Bridges...
Curated OER
Suspension Bridges: Connecting Lives
Middle schoolers explore bridges. For this bridge lesson, students design and build a suspension bridge after visiting related websites and reviewing famous bridges in non-fiction books. Middle schoolers follow the...
Curated OER
Build and Test a Paper Bridge
Students investigate making strong structures from paper. In this paper bridge lesson, students experiment making bridges out of paper. Students fold paper many different ways to test its strength. Students discuss what they tried and...
Curated OER
Paper Towel Structure
Students investigate technology and its purpose in the workplace. In this geometry lesson, students design and build a paper towel structure to investigate motion and forces. They are given a restricted weight and asked to build their...
Curated OER
Cross That Bridge
Students create paper bridges. In this geometry and architecture lesson, groups use legal paper and paper clips to design a bridge that will hold 100 pennies. Links to mini-lessons exploring stability of different geometric figures and...
Curated OER
Many Kinds of Bridges
Middle schoolers examine how there are many elements that need to be considered before building a bridge. Groups are given materials and they are to make a structure that can hold an object in suspension.
Berkeley Engineering and Mentors
Bridges
This engineering activity gets youngsters working together to design and construct a bridge. Each bridge is tested in front of the class to discover how much weight it can hold before showing any change in form. The lesson plan does not...
Curated OER
Building Paper Bridges
High schoolers construct a bridge that can hold 100 pennies. In this math lesson, students evaluate the strength of their bridges. They predict how much weight a bridge can hold based on its design.
Curated OER
Building a Bridge
Third graders discover architecture and functionality by constructing a bridge. In this bridge engineering lesson, 3rd graders utilize cardboard, straws, towel tubes and plastic bottles to create a model bridge similar to ones seen...
Curated OER
Building a Bridge
Students design a bridge. In this science lesson, students research different types of bridges and create a bridge using marshmallows, toothpicks and construction paper.
Curated OER
Toothpick Bridge Design
Eighth graders are introduced to what makes a strong, sound structure. They explore about the truss structure, the importance of the strength of the triangle and the distribution of forces along the truss. Students work in teams to...
Curated OER
Building Bridges
Learners use glue, toothpicks, cardboard, marshmallows and more to build a structure. In this building lesson plan, students budget money to get their materials and make their building in teams.
Curated OER
Pasta Bridges
Learners analyze the correct use of technology as it relates to math and science. In this science lesson, students investigate force and weight as it relates to building an object. They build a bridge and draw conclusion based on the...
Curated OER
Stable and Unstable Structures
Learners consider ways to create stable bridges. In this bridge design lesson, students view pictures of bridges that have collapsed. They use the information to work in small groups creating a blueprint for a bridge of their own. Their...
Curated OER
Building a Topographic Model
Learners explore the features of a topographic map. They make paper models that portray, in three-dimensions, features represented by contour lines on a topographic map. Students demonstrate different elevations shown on a...
Curated OER
The Mag Mile and ... Torque!
High schoolers use paper plates and detailed directions to build a model of the Michigan Avenue Bridge's gear system. By carefully measuring and cutting "teeth" for the gears of the "Gear Train," they create small gear that will...
Curated OER
Engineering Pop-Ups
Students explore the art of paper engineering and pop-up-books. They listen to a teacher-led lecture on pop-up books, discuss the process of paper engineering, and plan, design and construct an original pop-up book.
Curated OER
Allowing Students to Explore Simple Physics and Marketing in English Class
Scientific method, linear measurements, friction, inertia. Imagine learning scientific vocabulary in an ELA class. Before researching and developing a presentation about simple machines, class members build a common, but decidedly...
Curated OER
Physical Science: The Three Billy Goats Gruff
Explore science through problem solving and learning how to solve the problem of the story "The Three Billy Goats Gruff." Young investigators will learn how to construct a model and design a solution. They will also keep records of their...
Curated OER
Put Your Best Facade Forward-Lesson 1
Young scholars are introduced to the applied arts and focus on the applied art of architecture. They examine how architecture communicates messages about the people in a community who use a building. Students study the facade of their...
Curated OER
Sense of Place: No River Too Wide-Bridges
Fifth graders discover the history of their hometown Des Moines River. In this U.S. Geography lesson students speak with Iowans that tell stories of the settlers and early villages near the Des Moines River. Students document...
Curated OER
Giving it 100%
Learners build knowledge about the number relationships between decimals and percents as it relates to converting decimals into percents. In this decimal and percent instructional activity, students recognize equivalent forms of...
Curated OER
Faith Ringgold and Tar Beach
Learners read the book, "Tar Beach," and examine the artist's use of fabric as an art medium. They each create a building and a picture of themselves flying, and a section of the fabric border to develop a class quilt.