The Problem: the Prince wants to get to the castle to wake Sleeping Beauty. He has come to a deep river that his horse will not cross. The prince needs a bridge built so he can cross the river to wake Sleeping Beauty.
Materials:
- 50 3x5 index cards
- 12 inches of masking tape
- scissors
Constraints:
- The bridge must be at least 6 unifix cubes tall.
- The bridge must be at least 16 unifix cubes wide.
- The bridge must be able to hold weight/load. (Pennies)
We began by looking at various bridges and discussing their characteristics and parts. We spent time making note of the various shapes we saw the different bridges utilized in its design and why. The scholars then learned how to make different support shapes out of paper. We made: a cylinder, triangular and cubed shape support. Next, the scholars tested the strength of each support shape by seeing how much weight/load they could hold. For weight, we used various math manipulatives of approximate weight: tiles and pattern blocks. The class also watched a Bill Nye video on bridges. This video tied together very nicely what we had been discussing and doing. Finally the scholars got into pairs, gathered their materials and began to plan, design and construct. We will test, discuss and improve tomorrow.
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| The Problem, Material and Constraints |
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| Testing different support shapes (Sherif). |
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| Eleanor finally reached 100 tiles on her cubed support. |
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| Carter testing a triangular shaped support. |
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| Ariana, Elle and Eleanor testing supports. |
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| Carter also tested the cylinder shaped support. He discovered it held more weight/load than he thought. |
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| Samantha and Evan testing shape supports. |
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| Tate and Ashaz testing shape supports. |
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| We first graphed our initial thinking of the strongest shape for a bridge support (blue). The pink shows what we think after testing the different shapes. |
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| Some of the bridges we discussed. |
