Bridge Building
The sixth grade students in the
"Wings" program recently studied about bridge design. They each had the
opportunity to construct a bridge of their own. After carefully planning the
bridges, the designs were drawn on graph paper. The bridges were constructed out of
flat toothpicks and Elmer's glue. The students were given a budget and had to write
out checks for materials keep track of how much they spent on items such
as"lumber" and "welding material." When the bridges were
completed, a bridge breaking ceremony was held, with Mr. Ortman as the official
judge. The strongest bridge was the Elmer Diamond. The most
economically built bridge was the J.L. Starkweather. The best plans award
went to the Golden Pass. The students learned a lot about using triangles in
the design to make their bridges stronger. After seeing where the weakest points of
the bridges were, as shown by the bridge breaking, the students came up with many ideas of
what they would do differently if they were ever to design another bridge.
The Bridge Builders and Their Bridges
The Golden Pass Bridge
The J.L. Starkweather Bridge
The Elmer Diamond Bridge
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