Engineering Design Process: Bridges

Summary:
This lesson is designed to introduce students to the engineering design process through designing and building a bridge that fulfills requirements and abides by constraints.

Materials:
popsicle sticks
rubber bands
clay
straw
paper
pencil
scissors
tape
Spaghetti noodles
marshmallows
Newspaper
Cardboard
Toothpicks and gumdrops
Straws
technology to research

Agenda:
10 minutes:
Show and discuss the graphic organizer for the Engineer Design Process.
Listen/Read Aloud Iggy Peck, Architect here
5 minutes:
Allow students to ask questions and dive deeper into the content of what each stage requires, see lab sheet here.
5 minutes:
Divide the students into small groups 3-5
10 minutes:
Ask students how they will build a bridge that abides by the constraints?
Remind students that constraints are limitations that occur to provide guidelines within the building task
free standing
51 cm across
shorter than 20 cm high
holds a 4 oz plastic fruit cup in the center
Think about what others have done with actual bridges before that cause them to collapse
15 minutes:
Allow students time to research bridges and their structures/designs.
Give links or let them explore
List of links to give here
15 minutes:
Now give students time to look at their supplies and plan what they are going to do.
15 minutes:
Check in with students to approve plans before moving on to day 2 → Building
30 minutes:
Allow students to build with supplies, reminding them of their plans and constraints
10 minutes:
Test each group's ability to hold the fruit cup within the constraints in place.
20 minutes:
Give groups an opportunity to improve their bridge for a second run. If great the first time, build another bridge!
10 minutes:
Each group will have time to reflect and give their extensions of what went well and could be improved.