Building Bridges

Focus Question: How are bridges supported to hold weight?
-Have students share their past experiences with bridges.
-Have students share other questions they might have about bridges.
* Use their questions to start discussion
-Think about how you can test your questions. What type of investigation can we use to model and test your question?

Prediction/ Hypothesis: If the markers are closer together, then the bridge can hold more washers and pennies. 

Planning: index cards, markers, multiple size washers, pennies, Ziploc bags
-Use the markers as the support for the bridge, the index cards will be the actual bridge. Use the pennies/washers to test the sturdiness of the bridge and see how much it will hold. 

Data:

Claims & Evidence: We learned that the lower the bridge is, the more stable it is. We also discovered the shorter the bridge was, the more the support needed to be spread out and a taller bridge would need more support. 

Conclusion: So in this investigation, we learned that bridges need equal supports to hold weight. We also learned that if the markers (support) are closer together that the index cards (bridge), will be able to hold more weight (washers & pennies).