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Stable and Unstable Structures
Middle schoolers research three major bridge collapses. For this Physical Science lesson plan, students will sketch a bridge design for their area after their research. All bridge designs will be presented to the class to discuss...
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Intro to Building Bridges
Students participate in groups to complete the best bridge. In this bridge building lesson, students are assigned a role in building the bridge. Students will have to keep to their budgets. After the bridges are built, parents will be...
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Build a Cardboard Bridge That Can Hold Potatoes
Students identify the characteristics of a bridge and build with junk materials. In this bridge building lesson, students use cereal boxes, paper towel or toilet paper tubes and tape to create their bridges. Bridges must be a certain...
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Bridge Building, Tension, and Compression
Students demonstrate tension and compression using real world examples. In this forces lesson, students demonstrate tension on a suspension bridge. They demonstrate compression on different roof designs.
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Suspension Bridge Building
Students build a model of a suspension bridge and test the amount of weight it will support. In this engineering lesson, students study types of bridges and attempt to construct a suspension bridge shown in a diagram. They use string and...
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Strong as the Weakest Link
Students apply knowledge of stresses and forces by building model structures. In this force instructional activity, students consider skyscrapers and bridges in the world around them and the stresses that these structures endure. They...
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Ooblek
Students demonstrate the three states of matter. In this matter lesson, students read Bartholomew and the Ooblek. Students create "ooblek" and discuss what state of matter it is.
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Suspension Bridges: Connecting Lives
Middle schoolers explore bridges. In this bridge instructional activity, students design and build a suspension bridge after visiting related websites and reviewing famous bridges in non-fiction books. Middle schoolers follow the...
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Mixtures Lab
Students classify different mixtures. In this mixtures lesson plan, students determine samples to be suspensions, colloids, or solutions and compare homogeneous and heterogeneous mixtures.
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Skyscrapers: Engineering Up!
Learners build their own newspaper skyscrapers with limited materials and time. They identify several different structural engineering principles relating to skyscrapers. They explain how their towers resisted the wind load.
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Newspaper Tower
Young scholars design and construct a tower out of newspaper using a limited supply of newspaper, tape, and scissors. After completing their designs, they identify which designs can withstand the self-weight of the newspaper tower as...
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Carve That Mountain
Students investigate major landforms (e.g., mountains, rivers, plains, hills, oceans and plateaus). They build a three-dimensional model of a landscape depicting several of these landforms. Once they have built their model, they act as...
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Suspension Bridge
Students view a video clip about suspension bridges. They discover what forces support this type of bridge. They build their own suspension bridge using classroom materials.
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Bridging History and Technology
Learners study the history and importance of the Triborough Bridge in New York City, and then research different bridges and prepare presentations about them. They, in groups, research a bridge and prepare a poster about it.
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Bridge Building
Students design and build their own balsa wood model bridges. The technological development of bridges, the science principles that apply to bridge building, and the construction techniques and skills necessary for creating a bridge be...
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Lessons in Courage: Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and Ruby Bridges
First graders discover the contributions of Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and Ruby Bridges in the Civil Rights Movement. Books and recordings are used to help students explain how important they were in the movement.
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Mixing in the Kitchen
Students identify the different types of mixtures. They identify examples of solutions, suspensions, colloidal dispersions, and emulsions through a game and basic experiments.
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A Bridge is for Crossing
Learners examine the bridges of Washington State. They focus on the suspension bridge between Tacoma and Gig Harbor. They see how three different types of bridges work by rotating students through bridge stations.
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Is London Bridge Really Going to Fall Down?
Students discover what forces work together to hold up a suspension bridge. They see various bridges around the world, and learn the basic principles that enable each bridge to support itself. Groups design their own bridge, testing how...
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Building a Bridge
Learners design a bridge. In this science lesson, students research different types of bridges and create a bridge using marshmallows, toothpicks and construction paper.
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Famous Bridges
Students explain how significant bridges are in our lives. In this technology lesson, students research the history and characteristics of their assigned bridge and draw it on butcher block paper. They write a short tour script and...
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Bridges
Learners compare and contrast the three primary types of bridges. In this technology lesson, students design and build a bridge that spans 25 cm. They test their design and present the results to class.
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Presentations
Young scholars give presentations. In this unit culmination lesson, students present their bridge projects to parents. Young scholars test their bridges and are evaluated using a rubric.
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Stable and Unstable Structures
Middle schoolers consider ways to create stable bridges. In this bridge design lesson, students view pictures of bridges that have collapsed. They use the information to work in small groups creating a blueprint for a bridge of their...