In the Paper Bridge Engineering activity, children and their grownups practice their engineering design skills by building and testing their own paper bridge. Discovery Center visitors are encouraged to brainstorm about bridges, make a prototype, test it, re-evaluate, and re-design.
Engineers have many constraints when designing bridges, including the use of the bridge, the environment it is in, the materials that will be used, and the climate in which engineers are building. To help prepare, engineers may ask questions like:
• What will need to travel over or under the bridge?
• Will the bridge span a body of water?
• Will the bridge cut through a mountain?
• What resources are available? What materials are affordable?
• Does it rain a lot where the bridge will be built?
• Will earthquakes occur where the bridge will be buit?
The Paper Bridges activity introduces children to the science and math that engineers utilize when designing bridges for people or vehicles. During the activity, children are encouraged to think about geometry (what shapes are used to build real bridges), and challenged to apply what they know about shapes to their own paper bridge. Children are encouraged to set a goal for their bridge (e.g. building a bridge that will hold 20 plastic turtles, or some number of other objects). Children can also practice counting and carefully controlling variables as they design, test and re-design in order to reach their goal!