What shape makes the best dridge? Become a paper bridge engineer and learn about how shape plays a role in designing sturdy structures. Can you come up with an even stronger shape?
Key Concepts
Physics
Gravity
Weight
Civil engineering
The children were set a challenge to create a bridge that was 10cm off the floor and could hold a cup of water for 10 seconds. The only resources they were allowed to use was paper, scissors and sellotape.
We learnt how to read a ruler and use it to measure the height of something.
We also measured the length of our bridges.
The children finally managed to build a bridge that was tall enough (10cm) to meet the challenge requirements but the real questions was "will it be strong enough?"
NOOOOO our first attempt did not hold up to the conditions of the challenge.
The children found out that the flat pieces of paper bent very easily and sagged down under its own weight.
But we became stuck....
We decided that our next step should be to do a little bit of research the children thought it would be a good idea to look at some photos of real bridges on Miss Stella laptop which might give us a different design idea.
The children found a bridge with two large pillars on either side and then it had a flat bridge across the top. Straight away Aria realised that bending or rolling the pieces of paper, increased their stiffness and allowed them to form a bridge in between the two pillars.
Watch Mia and Lily test their bridge structure.
Next step: Looking around for examples of this principle in everyday life. For example, desks and chairs at school with metal legs. Are the legs flat pieces of metal or are they tubes? What do we think cylindrical tubes might be better for supporting the weight of a person than flat pieces?
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