Day 2 started with a whole class discussion time. During this discussion pairs shared frustrations, challenges, new insight and asked some great questions demonstrating they were really thinking about their designs. One really awesome question came from Tate. He asked if it was okay to anchor the bridge to the bottom of the river. Tate went on to explain that real bridges are anchored to the bottom so they did not float or blow away. My reply was not what Tate was hoping to hear, I sent him back to the original problem and constraints to determine for himself whether or not it would be okay. After reading again, Tate decided it would be okay since there wasn't anything saying he could not anchor the bridge.
After the class discussion, the pairs went back to their bridges and made some improvements before testing. Many pairs added more supports, several did indeed anchor their bridge to river bottom and one pair added side rails for added support. Then we began testing. Since I forgot my pennies, we used tiles as the common form of weight/load. The winning bridge was designed and engineered by Aidan and Elle. Their bridge held over 100 tiles!
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