STEAM Club was fun 1.14.15! We talked about different types of bridges, why you would build a bridge, the materials, design, etc. We looked at different examples of bridges in Wheaton, and a few around the world.
Then we looked at a few example toothpick bridges I had built over the holidays. We looked at the number of toothpicks in each bridge, and the design of them. Then we added weight to them and tried to break the bridges! Actually, I didn’t bring enough weight to break the sample bridges!
We began to discuss the design / iterative process that building projects like this take.
1. define the problem / or thing you want to do ( build a toothpick bridge)
2. collect information ( rules we went over in class 1.14, and demos of both real bridges and toothpick bridges)
3. brainstorm your own bridge, what you want to build? –kids do this week
4. develop, build your bridge!! kids do this week / next
5. feedback, think about it as you are building, what is working, what is not working,
6. improve your design, change things with your design, make it better.
7—repeat the whole process over and over ( in our case we’ll test bridges for strength / beauty / design/ least number of toothpicks, etc… on 1.28.15
On 1.28 all students brought their own bridges to class and we tested them. Below are the results. Before testing the bridges we discussed the design process again. Along with many of the pictures you can see quotes from students. Many of these quotes are directly in line with step 6 of the design process, improve/change your design to make it better.
Below the pictures are standards we covered in this project.
*Please contact steve@rubberbandproject if you our your school district are interested in learning more about this project.
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Held 2 gallons and 2 liters
What Challenges did you go through as you built your bridges?
My bridge cracked so we built more layer
 Held 1 Gallon
“Tressel”
Why did you chose to build your bridge the way you did? “Because I wanted it to have a lot of triangles in it and they are the strongest shape.”  Held 2 gallons and 2 liters “The Boxcar”
 Held 1 and 1/2 gallons
What Challenges did you go through as you built your bridges?
“my sides weren’t strait so I made pyramids and added triangles leaning against each other.”  Held one gallon
What Challenges did you go through as you built your bridges?
“When I was making the supports it was hard to have them go together”
Would you do anything different if you build your bridge again?
“If I did my bridge earlier in time I would have made it have more support.”
 Images from 1.14, learning how bridges would work  |
Held 48 Ounces
What Challenges did you go through as you built your bridges?
“When I glued it, it came out of place”
 Held 48 ounces
What Challenges did you go through as you built your bridges?
“The A’s kept falling down.”  Held 1 Gallon
Why did you chose to build your bridge the way you did?
“Because it has a lot of support”  Held 1 Gallon
Why did you chose to build your bridge the way you did?
“Because I wanted it to have a lot of triangles in it and they are the strongest shape”  Held One gallon and 48 ounces  Images from 1.14, learning how bridges would work
 
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Held 48 Ounces
 Held 48 ounces Would you do anything different if you build your bridge again?
“I would make it really wide.”
 Held 2 and 1/2 gallons and 48 ounces
What Challenges did you go through as you built your bridges?
“Making sure that the patters matched.”  Held 1 gallon  Held two and a half gallons, and 48 ounces 
Images from 1.14, learning how bridges would work
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Standards for Mathematical Practice
- CCSS.Math.Practice.MP1–Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them
- CCSS.Math.Practice.MP2–Reason abstractly and quantitatively
- CCSS.Math.Practice.MP3–Construct viable arguments; critique reasoning of others by commenting on their blogs
- CCSS.Math.Practice.MP4–Model with mathematics
- CCSS.Math.Practice.MP5–Use appropriate tools strategically
- CCSS.Math.Practice.MP6–Attend to precision
- CCSS.Math.Practice.MP7–Look for and make use of structure
- CCSS.Math.Practice.MP8–Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning
Middle School
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.3–Follow precisely a multistep procedure when performing technical tasks
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.4–Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.7–Integrate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually (e.g., a table)
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6-8.7–Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6-8.8–Gather relevant information from print and digital sources, using search terms effectively
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6-8.9–Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research