Has your family taken a bit of time to learn about bridges?  We did and it was an awesome, multi level, and cross curricular study!  With the Brooklyn Bridge opening May 24, 1883 , and the Golden Gate Bridge opening May 27, 1964, May is a great time to learn about bridges.  However, if bridges in May doesn’t work for you, the third Saturday in October is “Bridge Day” and “Historic Bridges” is one of the themes for the month of November! Of course, you don’t need a special day to learn about bridges and can add a study as your calendar allows.   Below are the links to the online resources we used.  And, remember to check with your local library for bridge books and movies.

Bridge Building Video – Learn some of the important differences between arch, suspension and cable-stayed bridges

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/videos/engineering/bridgebuilding.html

Bridge Facts –

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/engineering/bridges.html

Photo Gallery of Bridges Around the World

http://science.howstuffworks.com/engineering/structural/bridge-pictures.htm#page=0

Virtual Tour of the Golden Gate Bridge –

http://goldengatebridge.org/photos/bridgewalk.php

I didn’t give the boys any instructions, but just gave them the supplies from the following projects, and told them to build!  We tested them with weights (stacking cans of food), and with our remote control cars.

How to Make a Strong Paper Bridge –  http://www.ehow.com/how_6321787_make-strong-paper-bridge.html

Build a Bridge Challenge with Recyclables And Materials from Around the House –  http://inspirationlaboratories.com/science-at-home-strength-of-materials/

Spaghetti Bridge Engineering Project –  https://www.teachengineering.org/view_activity.php?url=collection/wpi_/activities/wpi_spagetti_bridge/wpi_spag_act_joy.xml

Build It Big – Bridge Challenge Interactive, Photo Gallery, Forces Lab, Meet the Engineers  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/bridge/index.html

Bridge Quotes and Idioms Explained –  http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/bridge

And for family reading, we picked up a copy of  Bridge to Terabithia, and the movie, too.  We think it’s interesting to compare books to their movies.

Bridge to Terabithia Lit Guide, Summary, and Quiz –  http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/terabithia/

And if you’re learning about bridges this October, don’t forget to include the bridge from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow!
http://gutenberg.org/ebooks/41

Field trips were fun and easy with this study.   We took an up-close look at a few bridges in our area.

       

I hope you enjoy the bridges study as much as we did!  Oh, by the way, the pretty stone bridge crossing the lake in the above photo was a construction project my husband worked on years ago.

betty jo