STEAM

Bridge Building

Following on from our Inland Rail incursion, STEAM students continued to investigate essential infrastructure through looking at bridge design. They tested beam, truss and suspension designs using various materials and construction techniques.

The program culminated in a design challenge in which students had to design and build a bridge using only paddle-pop sticks, elastic bands and string. They were scored on the span of their bridge, the load it held, and the aesthetics/design quality. They were penalised for the purchase of materials to encourage sustainability.

Congratulations to Edi, Marcus, Max and Stephen for the winning design.

Here is what some students had to say:-

Harrison... Our bridge was a beam bridge, and it worked really well because it could hold a lot of weight without breaking. We were happy with how strong it was and how well it supported the load. However, it didn’t look very nice or creative. The design was quite plain and not very attractive, so if we built it again, we would try to make it look better while still keeping it strong.

 

Stephen... We made a truss bridge out of paddle-pop sticks and elastic bands alongside some string. Our bridge did well and held up all the weight and also had a good span. Overall our bridge won the competition because we held the most weight and over a good distance. Our bridge also held good because we got extra design points because our bridge looked the best and you would be able to drive over.

 

Zahira... Piper and I build a beam bridge with paddle-pop sticks and string to create a spider like structure, the span was 10cm and it held 66 x 50 grams (the maximum amount). The aesthetic score for our bridge was 5. Our structure was very stable, and I believe we could've added more weight.but we couldn't as we used the maximum amount of weights, our original bridge was a truss bridge but we ran out of time to complete the bridge so we had to change to a beam bridge.

Rebecca Scollen