Hands On Bridge Building

Overview of the Project

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Instructions

Day 1

Using this vocabulary, construct two sentences for each of the following words and copy the definitions for each word into your notebook.

1. truss
2. pier
3. trestle
4. cable
5. caisson

1. acute angle
2. angle
3. congruent
4. diagonal
5. edge
6. obtuse angle
7. parallel lines
8. parallelogram
9. perpendicular line
10. polygon
11. quadrilateral
12. right angle
13. straight angle
14. trapezoid

Days 2-3

Note:

These are .gif and .jpg images and may take some time to load the graphics.

• Hare's Hill Road Bridge c. 1869
• North Hampton Street Bridge c. 1895
• Tunkhannock Creek Bridge c. 1891
• Walnut Street Bridge c. 1860
• Wishkah River Bridge c. 1924
• Hoquiam River Bridge c. 1928
• Vancouver-Portland Interstate Bridge c. 1917

Day 4

Divide yourselves into groups of four.  Having researched bridge
design, you must now design and build a bridge to meet the following
criteria:  
· It must span a 75 cm gap
· It must be 15 cm wide
· It must be able to support 25 g  at the center and 50 g at each end
· It must weigh no more than 300 g
· A Matchbox car must not fall through the roadway surface of the bridge

You must pick what type of bridge you are designing and sketch that
bridge.  Working as a group, be sure to pay particular attention to 
sketching your bridge to scale.  Have one member of the group design
the places that you will attach the spaghetti together.  Another member
can work on the materials list.  A third member of the group can do the 
actual drawing of the overall bridge, but the last member of the group
must be the "project manager".  The "PM" has to ensure that all members
of the group are on task and should also maintain focus on the overall
project criteria.

Days 5-7

First, you need to design and sketch the bridge that you want to build. Once you receive approval on your design from your math teacher, you will continue to research information on the type of bridge that you have chosen to build. Then begin a paper on this type of bridge. The paper must be at least two pages and must also include the history of the bridge and the features that make the bridge strong. The paper will be due on the final day of bridge construction.

Extra Credit! Write a two page paper on local bridges. Visit the Town Hall for more information. Include topographical information in your paper.

Reminder: Papers are due on the day of bridge final tests.

Days 8-9

You must dilate, to scale, your completed design onto graph paper. Then, you need to use the information that your completed dilation provides and develop a projected cost and materials needed estimation. Follow this design "to the letter" and build your bridge from the following materials:

Spaghetti                  -               $100.00 per strand
Elmer's Glue               -               $25,000 per bottle
Scotch Tape                -               $1000.00 per inch

Reminder: Papers are due on the day of bridge final tests.

Days 10-12

Build your bridge. Remember, you must:

1. Use your dilation.
2. Use only the materials provided (spaghetti, Elmer's glue, and Scotch tape).
3. Use only those materials accounted for in your budget.

Reminder: Papers are due on the day of bridge final tests.

Days 13-14

CAREFULLY examine your bridge for "flaws." Fix as many of the imperfections as you can. REMEMBER, your bridge to be structurally sound to sustain the weight of the mass that we will place on it. If you want to "pre-test" your bridge, a good guideline for estimation is that a nickel will weigh approximately 5.0g. Then you must determine your actual construction costs.

Reminder: Papers are due on the day of bridge final tests.

Day 15

Students will test their bridges. They must support 25g at the center and 50g at each end.

Remember: Papers are due today!

Other Sites and Information

Some suggested activities that relate to this project:

• You can contact the photographer who photographed the pictures used during day two, for information. The photographer, Perry S. Green from the ATLSS Center at Lehigh University can be contacted at pg06@Lehigh.edu
• You could contact the local historical society for information on the bridges in your area. Using this information, you could construct models of these bridges. Formulate a contest using this model and make it available to another school (in your community, state, or country)
• You could contact MIDLINK magazine, a magazine that posts the work of middle school students with information and photos about your project. Caroline McCullen, the contact person for MIDLINK magazine can be contacted at mccullen@aquarius.cc.ucf.edu
• You could contact the science department chair, Linda Whiteman, at East Avenue Middle to see if any classroom is intested in a contest in bridge building with your school. Since East Avenue Middle School has experience building bridges, you could also contact Linda Whiteman for information on Bridge Building. She can be contacted at Uhrenholt@snmail.lvjusd.k12.ca.us
• You could contact the technology coordinator at British Columbia's Ministry of Education for more information regarding bridge building at dhallada@mail.educ.gov.ba.ca
  
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