Lesson: Suspension Bridge Building
Posted on March 1st, 2010 by ASEE
Students grades 5-12 assume the role of civil engineers in constructing a model suspension bridge. They learn about other types of spans — including arch, girder, truss, and cantilever — and of the careful balance of compression and tension required in bridge building.
Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Grades 9-12, Lesson Plans | 2 Comments »
Tags: Bridge building, Bridge Design, Civil Engineering, Grades 5-12
Built for the West Point Bridge Design 2010 Contest, the West Point Bridge Designer 2010 software also can be used and distributed for educational uses. This software provides tools to model, test, and optimize a steel highway bridge, based on realistic specifications, constraints, and performance criteria. It introduces students to engineering through an authentic, hands-on design experience. This software provides tools to model, test, and optimize a steel highway bridge, based on realistic specifications, constraints, and performance criteria. It introduces students to engineering through an authentic, hands-on design experience. 
The PBS documentary on the Brooklyn Bridge was the first produced by Ken Burns, in 1982. This related PBS website offers a timeline on the design and building of the bridge, other on-line resources, and a educators’ page with lesson ideas. 
The several working bridge models of the Tufts Bridge Library are used with Massachusetts students grades 1-6 to demonstrate different types of bridge design, architecture, and construction methods. In addition, the online Tufts Bridge Library offers excellent resources, including a PowerPoint Presentation, several classroom activities and games, as well as links to other online bridge resources and programs.
The West Point Bridge Design Contest aims to provide middle school and high school students with a realistic, engaging introduction to engineering. The contest is provided as a service to education–and as a tribute to the Academy’s two hundred years of service to the United States of America. Contest registration opens January 28, 2010, with first qualifying round closing March 5, 2010.
Practicing elementary civil engineering, students in grades 1 through 8 build a portable paper structure able to support the weight of a book. They learn that material strength varies with shape and arrangement.
Students in grades 3 to 8 use a table-top tsunami generator to observe the devastation of these huge waves. They make villages of model buildings to test how different material types are impacted, and they learn how engineers design buildings to survive tsunamis.
In this lesson for grades 6-12, students experience the forces of tension and compression by manipulating objects that are strong in each but not in both. Students then take what they have learned and apply it to the construction of a simple model of a beam bridge and the more complex suspension bridge and inverted triangle support structure. During the lesson, students watch video segments that illustrate the design and construction process in the real world.
