Bridge Building Project

Justin's Target class at school has been working on a bridge building project. They were divided into teams and had to apply for jobs -the accountant, the builder, the engineer, etc. Justin applied for the builder job and had to fill out an application, do his resume, and have referrals. He got the job he wanted. They have spent the last month or so planning out and building their bridge out of toothpicks and the final part was to see whose bridge was the strongest. They had certain rules that they had to follow. And some teams did better than others at abiding by those rules.

 Unfortunately, his team (above) had some problems in the end and I have to admit that their bridge didn't look too sturdy when I looked at all the bridges.

 This one broke the rules about it having a solid floor.

 This one allowed LARGE ships to go under it.

 And this one looked the prettiest!

 Each one had a pencil with a basket attached to it and then the kids started adding weights to see how much each bridge could hold before it broke. It is amazing how strong these little toothpick bridges were!

 Each bridge had to be able to fit a car across it, and a boat under it to meet the rules. Here, she is testing the clearance.

 We are adding the weights!

 It is bending but not breaking...

 It finally broke..nice and clean

Here are the results. However, several of those stronger bridges were disqualified for not following the rules.  The kids really enjoyed this unit and learned so much about bridges and team work.