Engineers Far and Near

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“Wow!” “That’s so cool!” “Can I eat your bridge?” On Thurs. Oct. 29 these were some exclamations heard in Mr. Wadness’ class. Students had brought in their finished science projects. For the past 2 months the students had been learning about engineering concepts such as arches and suspension. The way they learned about these concepts was through the investigation of different styles of bridges. Some of the styles explored were trusses, beams, and drawbridges, such as: the Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco), the Confederation Bridge (Prince Edward Island), and the Tower Bridge (London). The students had to make a bridge, either real or imagined. Some students’ models were their own creations or a replica of a real bridge. Some materials used were candy, wood, glue, wire, cardboard, paint, PVC pipes, aluminum foil, popsicle sticks, graham crackers, and frosting. The projects demonstrated beam, arch, suspension, truss, and drawbridge engineering concepts. Each student presented their bridge and described how they made it, what materials they used, and if it was an imaginary or a real bridge. Three cheers for fourth grade engineers!

Reported by: Caroline C. and Grace D.