Beam Bridges

Welcome to Bridgetown!!!!  This week, we started our new unit of bridges.   Learning about Portland wouldn't be complete without looking and studying the bridges that dot our cityscape!!!

First, we did some reading about bridges.  We talked about the parts of the bridge and what a bridge really is, how they function, and how they can be anything (like a log over a stream).

Then, we put on our engineering hats, and tried building a simple beam bridge.  The students were given 2 cups and one piece of paper.  They were asked to make a bridge.  The challenge was to see how far apart the cups (the piers) could be and still hold weight.  We have taped together 10 pennies to use as tester weights.  The kids set about this task....most thought it would be pretty easy....

Most did a simple bridge...they folded the paper to see if it would hold 10 pennies. Most did, as long as the cups weren't too far apart.

Some groups tried to get fancy and they tried to secure the bridge to the cups.

Most of the bridges only held 10 pennies, but this bridge held 20!  I love how they used cantilevers to keep their bridge steady.

This activity gets the kids excited about building bridges, and to think about the parts of a bridge and how they work together to perform a function.  Next up, arches and suspensions!!!!