Bridge Building Challenge
Watch a story about ‘Iggy Peck, Architect’ and then build and test your own bridge.
Watch a story about ‘Iggy Peck, Architect’ and then build and test your own bridge.
Could you build a bridge strong enough for one of your cars or toys to cross?
Use materials from around your home or garden to build the strongest bridge possible.
This page will print, but looks a little funky. Click the button for a PDF version which looks a bit better.
Age 3 up
About 30 minutes
You know your children better than anyone, and you should judge whether they’re ready for this activity. You might want to think in particular about
First watch this story about Iggy Peck, the architect. The story lasts about 9 minutes.
Collect your building materials together.
Put two chairs back to back to create a gap of about 20 cm to build your bridge across. You don’t have to measure the distance!
Decide what you want your bridge to look like.
You could draw a few ideas before you choose one and start to build.
Test your bridge.
Can you drive your car across it?
Can you balance your toy on it?
When you placed the car on your bridge, the weight of the car might have caused your bridge to start to bend. If you put too many cars on, your bridge would collapse.
Real bridges are designed and built to hold the weight of the vehicles and people that travel over them. Bridges spread the effect of the downward forces (weight) across the whole bridge, especially the bits that are on land. Some bridges do this by using arches, others use long chains or metal ropes to spread the weight out to the edges which are firmly secured on land.
You can watch this video to find out how suspension bridges work.
Have you ever wondered how a real suspension bridge is built?
Watch this video to find out how the Northern Spire Bridge in Sunderland was constructed.
You will need:
Create your gap of about 15 cm to put your bridge across. You don’t need to use a ruler, just make the gap wide enough so that your paper stays up when put across it.
Lay your paper across the gap.
Put your coins on the centre of the paper bridge, one at a time.
How many coins can the paper hold?
Fold the paper in half length ways.
Put it across the gap. Put your coins on the paper again, one at a time.
How many coins can the paper hold this time?
Make a concertina. Fold about 2cm of the long edge over.
Fold the next 2cm over in the opposite direction.
Continue folding in this zig-zag pattern.
Put the concertina across your gap. Put your coins on the paper again, one at a time.
How many coins can the paper hold this time?
Which paper bridge held the most coins?
Why do you think this bridge design was stronger?
The concertina is made up of a series of triangles. Triangles are one of the best shapes for spreading out weight. They take force from a single point and spread it across a wide base. Bridges made of triangle sections are called truss bridges.
Age 3 up
About 30 minutes
You know your children better than anyone, and you should judge whether they’re ready for this activity. You might want to think in particular about
Structural engineers are interested in everything to do with buildings and built structures, such as houses, hospitals, office blocks, bridges, oil rigs, ships and aircraft. They work to understand, predict and measure aspects such as the strength, stability and how rigid the structures are.
They are also responsible for choosing the right materials, such as concrete, steel, timber and masonry, to meet design specification of the structure.
Attributes: observant, committed, tenacious
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