Build your own bridge with a real-life engineer!
Primary | Materials | Views: 1446
Watch the video to work with Jasmine, an Electronics Engineer to learn more about bridges – their different structures, shapes and materials used to build them.
Think about these questions before watching:
- What is engineering?
- Do you know any famous engineers? Think about movies where
- characters create things…
- What kind of engineers build bridges?
- Why do we need bridges?
You will need:
- The most important thing you will need is 2 structures with at least a 30cm gap, maybe you could set up two chairs!
- Items that can be found around your house to make a bridge…get inventive! Try out different structures and materials
- Pencil/Pen
- Notebook
- Ruler
- Bridge knowledge…check out the video to help with this!
- Scissors
- A helping hand
Some ideas for things you could use:
- Tape
- Elastic bands
- Safety pins
- Rope
- Paper clips
- Cutlery
- Plastic bags
- Stationery
- Recycling
- Be as creative as you want!
Hints from Jasmine:
- Plan first - it is important to plan what you will build beforehand.
- Research strong shapes, check out the video for bridge types.
- Test the strength of materials before building.
- When built, test the strength of your bridge.
- Remember! This is an experiment if your bridge breaks you will have learned about the materials you have used. This is what happens in real-life engineering!
Show us your engineering work. Send a photo to askanambassador@canterbury.ac.uk to get feedback from an engineer, or tag us on Twitter @STEMHUB_SE
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