Our second year class have completed their bridge building project with some excellent results. Mr Cockburn our student teacher had the class for the first four lessons where they investigated lots of different bridge types, built some arch bridges and learnt about triangulation.
Mrs Smyth then took the class forward to designing and building their own bridges. The class were set tight parameters about what the bridge had to be:
- constructed from newspaper and scellotape,
- suspend a minium of 500g for 20 seconds
- be free standing (can’t stick bridge to desk)
- span a gap of 500mm
- be a maximum of 250mm height, 100mm width
Each team was scored in various area:
- Weight held
- Weight of bridge (the lighter the better)
- Construction of joints/bridge
- Teamwork
- Cost (1 broadsheet of newspaper cost £1000, 500mm of scellotape cost £500)
Second year, I would like you to evaluate the success of this project and provide me with some good honest feedback about how well (or bad) you thought the whole project went.
1. Describe 2 new things that you learned during the project.
2. Describe 1 thing that you thought was particularly tricky.
3. What was your favourite part of the project and why?
4. What could you have done better during the project? You can talk about the group work or when you were working on your own
5. And lastly what could your teacher have done better (e.g. what could be done better for next year)?
#1 by iain on May 14, 2010 - 9:14 am
1. i learnt that triangles help support a structure
The amount of triangles depends on the shape of the structure
2.MAKING THE BRIDGE
3.My favourite part was the sellotape because i found trying to put it on the bridge as being fun
4.i could have improved on group discusiion and group work
5.gave us free supplies!
#2 by Cameron Young on May 14, 2010 - 9:18 am
i learned that there are differnt kinds of bridges
#3 by Hannah on May 14, 2010 - 9:19 am
1. I learned about different types of bridges and about putting triangles in them to make them stronger.
2. building the bridge.
3. Building the bridge because we didnt have to write.
4. I could have done better bringing in the homework.
5. Let us choose our own groups.
#4 by Michael Kelly on May 14, 2010 - 9:20 am
1. In this project I learned that a triangle was the strongest shape and I also learnt all the bridge types.
2. One thing that I found tricky was the rolling up of the newspaper
3. My favourite part of the project was when we finally finished the bridge because it took an age to make.
4. I could of kept my designs together instead of leaving them about and losing them.
5. I think my teacher could of given us more handy tips on how to make the bridge.
#5 by andrew on May 14, 2010 - 9:20 am
1. i have learned a lot of things learning about bridges like that the triangles make the bridge stronger and that beam bridges are more cheaper and easier to make than other bridges.
2.i found that it was hard to get the bridge balanced so it doesnt dip at any part of the bridge.
3.my favorite part of the project was making the briges then testing the bridges using wieghts to see what bridge was the strongest.
4.we could of made our bridge look better as we made a very basic bean bridge.
5.Every thing was really fun making and learning about bridges and my teacher was very good and explained things very well.
#6 by alistair on May 14, 2010 - 9:21 am
i have learned that paper is alot stronger when tightly packed and i have learned how to make a structure stronger, using triangles. I found tring to get each piece of rolled paper to stay together was quite tricky. I particularly liked testing the bridges, and destroing them at the end. I could of focused more during the project.
#7 by Graeme mitchell on May 14, 2010 - 9:21 am
two new things that i learend was that all the diffrent structures of bridges, and that the triangle is the strongest shape. My favourite part of the project was working together. I also liked when we tested the bridges. I found it funny when other peoples bridges collapsted.I alos found it intresting that paper bridges can hold alot of weight.i enjoyed this project:)
#8 by Graeme mitchell on May 14, 2010 - 9:21 am
two new things that i learend was that all the diffrent structures of bridges, and that the triangle is the strongest shape. My favourite part of the project was working together. I also liked when we tested the bridges. I found it funny when other peoples bridges collapsted.I alos found it intresting that paper bridges can hold alot of weight.i enjoyed this project:)
#9 by Claire on May 14, 2010 - 9:21 am
1.- the names of different parts of a bridge
– the names of different types of bridges
2. making the bridge strong
3. building the bridges because i like building things
4. tried to remember the bridge types
5. let us choose our own groups
#10 by James McFarlane on May 14, 2010 - 9:22 am
1) how to make bridges out if newspaper i also learned loads of bridges.
2)making the bridge stable.
3)The best part of the project testing them till it colapses
4)i could of helped more
5)put us in better groups
#11 by Ruaridh on May 14, 2010 - 9:23 am
1.I learnt that triangles help the structure of building bridges, I also learned loads of types of bridges.
2.I thought making the bridge was hard because i could’nt roll up the newspaper.
3.I thought testing the bridges was fun becuase some of them got destroyed.
4.I think I should keep my pencil lighter on the paper.
5.There was nothing bad about the teachers.
#12 by Ben on May 14, 2010 - 9:23 am
1. 1 of the things that i learned was if you put triangals into the bridge it makes it stronger the 2nd i learned was that rolling newspaper is not as easy as it looks.
2. rolling newspaper was quite tricky.
3. my favourite part of the subject was the end when we tested the bridge to distruction and that was funny.
4. i could have made the bridge a bit better.
5. no i was happy with the teacher.
#13 by Graeme mitchell on May 14, 2010 - 9:23 am
i found it tricky putting the structure together.
#14 by Katie M on May 14, 2010 - 9:24 am
1. -squares arent very strong building shapes
-newspaper can be very strong
2. Building the bridge
3. The technical drawing
4. Built the bridge better
5. Put us in groups that we work well in(ie our friends) not with people that are badly behaved and need to be monitored.
#15 by Cameron Young on May 14, 2010 - 9:27 am
i didnt find any thing tricky
my favourite part in this project was making the paper bridges
i think i should of worked in my team a lot more
#16 by Claire Hunter on May 14, 2010 - 9:31 am
2.The one thing i found tricky was building a bridge out of newspaper!
3.My favourite part of the project was when we were testing the bridges because you had to wait for it to fall!
4.i could of got the people in my group to participate more as i was the only one working on the bridge.
5.i think my teacher could have given us more tips on how to constuct our brigde!
#17 by Liam Moody on May 14, 2010 - 9:32 am
1. the things i learned where that there are loads of diffrent types of bridges and that paper bridges hold a lot of weight.
2.the bit i liked the best was when we got to see what weight our bridges could hold.