Paper Bridges Activity

Paper Bridges Activity

Activity Briefing Sheet for Engineers Activity Title Paper Bridge Building Challenge Activity Length 60 minutes Years 5 9 Class Organisation Groups of 2-3 Presentation Build Time Test Time DVD 25 minutes 10 minutes Equipment Required per team: 1m sticky tape 4 sheets A4 paper Certificates for winners ICE Schools movie Engineering your Future Weights to test bridges with i.e. Mars bars or books (See step 1 for ideas) The Little DVD of Civilisation to be left behind at the school 1 For the weights ICE has used standard sized Mars bars in the past (best score ever is 53!). These can be distributed at the end as an extra prize. If sweets are a contentious prize then you can use something else. Little Books of Civilisation are good and you can give these out at the end. They can be heavy to transport so if this is a problem ask the school if they can provide blank exercise books or an alternative. As long as what you use are of a standard weight and can be stacked on the bridges then that s fine. 2 Introduce yourself and say very briefly your job title. Getting the students doing the talking is really good so ask them if they can guess what you do when they hit a right idea write it up on the whiteboard. This should only take a couple of minutes at the most. 3 Deliver the presentation. STEMNET recommend to keep it less than 15 minutes as the attention span starts to wane then. Once finished announce the challenge! 4 Ask the teacher to split the class into groups. Hand round the materials and the briefing sheets. 5 Go through the briefing sheet and ask if there are any questions. 6 Set them building their bridges and keep an eye on the time. Wander round the groups offer advice or ask helpful questions if anyone is really struggling. 7 Warn them when they have 5 minutes left!

Activity Title Paper Bridge Building Challenge 8 Set two tables 40cm apart this is the testing zone. Invite each team up one by one and get them to load their own bridge. When the bridge collapses count the number of mars bars / books it took. Write this up on the whiteboard. 9 As each team retires say they can make modifications to their bridges and they can have one more go at the end to see if they can better their score. (This may not be possible depending how much time you have but if you can fit it in please try as this learning from experience is very important). 10 The winning bridge is the one that takes the most Mars bars or books. 11 Play the Civil Engineering DVD while you make up certificates. Announce the winners at the end present them with certificates. Hand out Mars bars and/or Little book of civilisation. 12 Leave behind a copy of the Little DVD of Civilisation for the school if they do not have it already. If you organise to deliver this event to a class yourself please remember to inform STEMNET prior to the event so you are covered by their insurance. Please also remember to let fill in our survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/eofeschoolvisitreport so we can record all of the good work ICE members are doing in the region. If you are not a STEM ambassador and would like to be one, please visit the STEMNET website: https://db.stemnet.org.uk/register.cfm. If you have any feedback on this event or any ideas for new ones, please contact Heather. Heather Bell Regional Coordinator heather.bell@ice.org.uk 01223 842067

Activity Briefing Sheet for Teachers Planned Lesson Activity Activity Title Paper Bridges Exercise Activity Length 60 minutes Years 5-9 Class Organisation Groups of 2-3 Presentation Build Time Test Time DVD 25 minutes 5 minutes Equipment Required per team: School to provide 1m of sticky tape 4 sheets of A4 paper 1 box of standard Mars bars to load the bridges with (alternatively you can use anything in the classroom that you have plenty of that are all the same weight ie exercise books) ICE to provide Certificate for winners Small prize for all participants DVD Presentation Volunteer ICE STEM Ambassadors This hour long session aims to: a) Increase awareness of what Civil Engineers do and their importance in society. b) Challenge students to solve a problem using basic engineering principles. c) Requires students to work as a team. d) Requires students to work to a brief. e) Encourages students to learn and improve from their experience. f) Reward students for their hard work! Please contact Heather Bell if you are interested in having this package delivered to your class. heather.bell@ice.org.uk 01223 842067

Bridge Building Challenge Brief: Using only the materials provided you must build a bridge of your own design to span a gap of 40cm and test its strength by loading it with Mars bars. Materials: 4 sheets of A4 paper 1 metre of sticky tape. Rules: The bridge must be self supporting. The bridge may NOT be taped to the table. The Mars bars must sit on the bridge above the gap and not directly above the table.

This is to certify that:.. Was a successful Civil Engineer in the: Bridge Building Challenge On Awarded by ICE STEM Ambassador