Cornell University
The Physics of Bridges
Stability is key when building a bridge. Scholars explore the forces acting upon bridges through an analysis of Newton's Laws and Hooke's Law. The activity asks individuals to apply their learning by building a bridge of their own.
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Paper Suspension Bridges: You Want Me To Go Up There?
A few class periods will be required to complete this physics investigation with your high schoolers. There is an unavailable video written into the lesson plan, but there is plenty of material here to bridge the gap. Two terrific...
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Bridge Construction
Students build a model of a bridge and test the amount of weight it support. They identify different types of bridges: suspension, arch, girder, truss, cantilever, cable-stayed and moveable.
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Bridge Building
Young scholars 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...
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Intro to Building Bridges
Students participate in groups to complete the best bridge. In this bridge building instructional activity, students are assigned a role in building the bridge. Students will have to keep to their budgets. After the bridges...
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Bridge Design and Bridge Building
Seventh graders conduct an investigation into the design of bridges and their construction. Students design bridges and draw detailed plans. For assessment they construct a model of a bridge that is made entirely of toothpicks. Students...
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Bridge Building lab
Students investigate the 4 types of bridges and their strengths and weaknesses at an Internet Website. They describe one type of bridge that they have seen. Students pair off and face each other with their palms touching and feet flat...
Scholastic
STEM Challenges and Activity Sheets for Grades 6–8
From 3-D cities to building bridges, young engineers engage in innovative STEM challenges that promote brainstorming and collaboration. Learners take on the roles of different types of engineers as well as become familiar...
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Building Paper Bridges
Learners construct a bridge that can hold 100 pennies. In this math lesson, students evaluate the strength of their bridges. They predict how much weight a bridge can hold based on its design.
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Incredible Edible Bridges
Learners create a bridge using engineering and geometric concepts. In this geometry lesson, students identify the missing measures of polygons sides and angles. They work together to solve real life situation using problem solving...
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A Walk on the West Side
Students comprehend what makes up the physical community. Read and construct scale drawings and models. Explore the history of infrastructures and how the contributions of science, math and industry have led to the development of their...
Scholastic
STEM Challenges and Activity Sheets 3–5
How can engineers help their communities? Three challenges in the first unit explore why STEM is important to communities and how neighborhoods are engineered to experience those benefits. The second unit prompts groups to plan an...
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Lemon Battery
Students construct their own battery made of lemons. For this electrochemistry lesson, students explain why lemons conduct electricity. They perform a series of experiments to investigate its conductivity.
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Science: Motion Commotion
Students examine Newton's three laws of motion to discover what causes it and how it changes. They conduct motion experiments by building catapults and constructing balloon rockets. Finally, they conduct peer studies correlating...
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Environment: Wild Wind Direction
Students examine the different types of wind patterns. Using common materials, they construct weather vanes to measure and record wind direction over a two-week period. After analyzing the data, they draw conclusions about the...
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Earthquake Experiments
Students discuss the effects of earthquakes. In this earth science lesson, students create earthquake models and earthquake-proof buildings. They construct their own seismograph.
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Project Yellow Bus
Students discover the uses of energy and the difference between renewable and nonrenewable resources. They participate in hands-on activities to help them explain the concept of energy.
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What Makes Up An Artificial Satellite?
Young scholars discover the components of a satellite using analogies to humans in a class discussion and participate in an activity in which they construct a paper model of a satellites and experiment with different types of attitude...
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Tower Power
Students explore basic building and engineering concepts by constructing a structure that supports weight. They demonstrate an understanding of basic business concepts by estimating the cost and value of a building.
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The Design Process
Students work together to construct a foundation of nine 3" x 5" index cards to support their 9" textbook off their desk. They summarize the steps used to solve the problem and discuss and compare their solutions. They then complete the...
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TE Activity: Build Your Own Mobile
Students inquire into how the center of mass is the key factor in designing cars. They construct an oddly shaped object and determine its center of mass. They find that engineers are able to predict how objects will behave while they are...
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The Chaos Game
Students measure and predict the behavior of a fractal. In this investigative lesson students divide into groups, and participate in an activity that includes drawing triangles and coloring vertices.
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Spaghetti Graphs
Students work in pairs to test the strength of spaghetti strands. They collect and graph data to determine a line of best fit. Students create a linear equation to interpret their data. Based on the data collected, students predict...
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How Do Things Fall?
Students study forces by examining the force of gravitational attraction. They observe how objects fall and measure the force of gravitational attraction upon objects. Students discover that, since gravitational constants are different...