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Try it at home: Engineer a bridge
Iowa Children's Museum
Apr. 26, 2021 11:00 am
A bridge is a structure that crosses an open space and allows people, vehicles, or items to travel from one side to the other. You can engineer your own bridge at home using household items. Experiment to figure out what makes a bridge strong!
What you’ll need:
- Pennies
- Paper
- Cups, books or small boxes
- Tape
What you’ll do:
- Create a “ravine” with two stacks of books, two cups, or two small boxes. Use these items to create equally-tall sides with a narrow valley in between. Your bridge will cross this ravine.
- Use paper to create your first “bridge.” You can start with something simple like one sheet of paper that connects both sides. Test the strength of your bridge by stacking pennies on it. How many can it hold before it falls?
- Start experimenting! Test different types of bridges by folding, layering or taping your paper in various ways. How can you make your bridge stronger? During this time, make predictions on which paper bridge will be successful at holding pennies.
- Test your bridge strength. Once each bridge is complete, stack your pennies on it to test its strength. Which one holds the most pennies? The least? Can you make a bridge that holds 10 pennies? Twenty pennies?
- Assess your results. Were your predictions accurate? What makes a bridge strong? What materials and designs worked best? How can you use these observations?
What you’ll learn:
Play isn’t just fun — it’s how kids learn! When you complete an activity like this, you build skills that will help you in the future.
- Problem solving skills: Experimenting with materials to create a functioning object is what engineers do all day long!
- Scientific exploration: You are experimenting with forces (pushes or pulls) on objects by testing their bridge design. Experimenting is the baseline for all scientific exploration.
- Motor control: Creating the bridge helps increase control in small motor skills and hand-eye coordination. These skills are the basis for important tasks like handwriting and getting dressed.
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