the structural parts of your bridge to only corrugated or shirt
cardboard, white glue, cotton string, staples, brass fasteners,
and masking tape.
may also be decorated with paint, markers, crayon, or construction
paper if you wish.
bridge must span at least 12 inches between its piers and have
6 inches of clearance under the road deck. The road deck should
not be wider than 8 inches.
as a class or ask an impartial judge to choose the Best-Looking
and Most-Ingenious bridges.
simplest test for the Strongest Bridge is to carefully pile on
more weights (like books) until the bridge starts to sag. The
bridge that holds the heaviest stack wins.
accurate way to judge the Strongest Bridge, though, is to divide
the number of poinds each bridge holds by the number of pounds
the bridge weighs all by itself. The bridge with the highest number
(ratio) wins, because the best designs use the least materials
to gain the most strength.
on the rules together, but remember the special challenges that
all bridges face:
must span a minimum distance;
as little material as possible;
as much weight possible.
how many different ways you can devise to test these attributes
of bridges, then choose the method that the most students agree
is fair. Then build the bridges according to the rules you've
established and judge them! You'll learn as much from determining
the rules as you will from building the bridges!