Handout
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: Build a Bridge

For Students 9th - 10th
Survey potential bridge sites, research bridge design, and select the right bridge for the right location in this interactive activity from the NOVA: "Super Bridge" Web site.
Website
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: Triangles: Designing a Straw Bridge

For Students 3rd - 8th
In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, the cast tries to design and build a bridge made out of drinking straws that will support the weight of 200 pennies. [4:02]
Handout
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: The Bridge Challenge

For Students 9th - 10th
This interactive activity, from the Web site developed for the PBS series "Building Big," use your knowledge of bridge design to match the right bridge location in a fictitious city.
Article
Other

Ties Magazine: Model Bridges

For Teachers 9th - 10th
One high school's curriculum tackles the challenge of bridge construction. In this article, you will read one student's thought and design processes as well as some of the leading questions he was asked to consider.
Website
Other

Bay Bridge 360: The San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge

For Students 9th - 10th
Interactive website, with videos, aerial views, photographs, and slideshows, documents the actions taken to replace and stabilize portions of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge against future seismic activity.
Website
PBS

Pbs: Building Big: Bridges

For Students 3rd - 8th
A collection of resources about bridges that includes basic facts about bridges, challenges faced by bridge builders, famous bridges from around the world, and a lab that helps you understand how different forces affect bridge...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Construction Technologies: Construct the Strongest Bridge

For Teachers 6th - 8th
In this activity, students will work in pairs to create three simple types of bridges. They will observe quantitatively how the bridges work under load and why engineers use different types of bridges for different places. They also will...
Website
PBS

Pbs: American Experience: Golden Gate Bridge

For Students 9th - 10th
The perfect site on the Golden Gate Bridge! PBS provides bridge math, great pictures of before, during, and after the construction of the bridge, and a special section called "Balancing Forces," that demonstrates how the "tension" of the...
Lesson Plan
Other

University of Cincinnati: Project Step: Build a Bridge

For Teachers 9th - 10th
In this two-period lesson, students work in teams to focus on the real-world application of bridge design and construction based on capacity, cost, and aesthetics.
Unit Plan
PBS

Pbs: Nova: Super Bridge

For Students 9th - 10th
Online companion to a NOVA program on bridges. Includes teacher resources, including a class activity through which students construct and test their own bridge,
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Designing Bridges

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Learners learn about the types of possible loads, how to calculate ultimate load combinations, and investigate the different sizes for the beams (girders) and columns (piers) of simple bridge design. Students learn the steps that...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Building Our Bridge to Fun!

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students identify different bridge designs and construction materials used in modern day engineering. They work in construction teams to create paper bridges and spaghetti bridges based on existing bridge designs. Students progressively...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Straw Bridges

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Working as engineering teams, students design and create model beam bridges using plastic drinking straws and tape as their construction materials. Their goal is to build the strongest bridge with a truss pattern of their own design,...
Handout
Library of Congress

Loc: Today in History: June 12: Roebling and the Brooklyn Bridge

For Students 9th - 10th
Read about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, the first steel-wire suspension bridge. This site, from American Memory, has a biography of John A. Roebling, the designer of the bridge, and many links to photographs of the construction...
Lesson Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: Bridging World History: Maps, Time, and World History

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Learn how map projections and chronological constructs are used in the study of world history and help us to understand and interpret the past. Part of a larger site on world history, this unit on maps offers complete reading,...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Boom Construction

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Student teams design their own booms (bridges) and engage in a friendly competition with other teams to test their designs. Each team strives to design a boom that is light, can hold a certain amount of weight, and is affordable to...
Lesson Plan
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

The Math Forum: Seventh Grade Mathematics: Data Sense

For Teachers 6th - 8th
This site has some interesting ways to collect and evaluate data. There are some activities about note taking, spreadsheets, surveys, and a cool bridge construction project. Teachers may want to use this site as a resource for some...
Article
A&E Television

History.com: When the Golden Gate Bridge Flattened by 7 Feet and Facts About the San Francisco Icon

For Students 9th - 10th
The 1.7-mile-long Golden Gate Bridge has endured earthquakes, lead paint and record crowds since its historic construction in 1937. Check out the eight surprising facts about he Golden Gate Bridge.
Unit Plan
Wonderville Media

Wonderville: Golden Gate Bridge

For Students 2nd - 7th
The city of San Francisco started officially planning to build the Golden Gate Bridge in August 1919. Many experts said it could not be built because of heavy winds and strong ocean currents, but construction began in 1933 and was...
Interactive
National Endowment for the Humanities

Neh: Edsit Ement: Xerxes' Bridges Over the Hellespont

For Students 9th - 10th
Xerxes used hundreds of ships to create two bridges over the Hellespont. This interactive activity walks students through the stages of the construction.
Activity
Other

Whiting School of Engineering: Spaghetti Bridge

For Teachers 9th - 10th
An engineering project where students construct a bridge from spaghetti and glue. Site includes guidelines, pictures, and movies of previous projects.
Interactive
PBS

Pbs Kids: Dinosaur Train Bridge Builder

For Students Pre-K - K
This activity will help children use units to measure length, add two lengths to create a whole, and use words for describing length such as longer and shorter. Sheets of paper become pieces of wood as they construct a bridge for a...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Spaghetti Bridge

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Civil engineers design and construct structures such as buildings, dams, and bridges. We can explore the field of engineering by making a bridge using spaghetti. This bridge is then tested based on the weight it can carry without breaking.
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Strength of Materials

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Learners learn about the variety of materials used by engineers in the design and construction of modern bridges. They also find out about the material properties important to bridge construction and consider the advantages and...

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