Bridges

Monday

Building Bridges

Let's learn about engineers and the different types of bridges they design!

Beam Bridge

Arch Bridge

Suspension Bridge

Cable-Stayed Bridge

Cantilever Bridge

Truss Bridge

Monday

What do engineers do?

Check out these pictures of what these kid engineers have designed and created! Click on the picture to see a video of things real kids invented and how they did it!

Tuesday

Engineers design bridges. Let's find out more about what engineers do and how they work to solve problems!

Annie and Mobie: Engineering and Design Process

Watch how kids came up with ideas to solve problems, drew pictures of their idea, and then had their idea actually created and built!

Tuesday

Can you think like an engineer to solve a problem?

Wednesday

why are bridges so strong?

These bridges are both amazing and scary!!

Thursday

Beam Bridges

• Simplest bridge design
• Can be as simple as a log across a stream
• The more piers on the bottom, the stronger the bridge! Longer beam bridges need many piers to keep them safe.

Listen to the story, Bridges, and notice the text features throughout the book.

Friday

Arch Bridges

• One of the oldest bridge designs (has been used for over 3,000 years!)
• Its strength comes from its curved shape. The arch presses down from the top and the ground resists with the same force.
• Why do you think the bridge on the right needs so many arches?

Listen to the story, How Did They Build That Bridge, and notice the text features throughout the book.

Monday- Week 2

Click to learn more about the most famous suspension bridge!

Suspension Bridges

• The roads hang from cables and the cables hang between 2 or more towers.
• Very strong, but are expensive and time consuming to build.

Listen to the story, The Golden Gate Bridge, and notice the text features throughout the book.

Tuesday- Week 2

Cable-Stayed Bridges

Click here to see the top 10 longest cable-stayed bridges!

• Have one or more columns with cables supporting a bridge deck.
• Faster to build and use less construction materials than suspension bridges.

Wednesday- Week 2

Truss Bridges

• Strongest bridge type because of the triangular design.
• Often incorporated into other bridge designs to add strength.
• Can span virtually any distance.

Thursday- Week 2

Cantilever Bridges

• Cantilevers are structures that project horizontally into space and are supported on only one end.