Building Bridges
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Title:
| Building Bridges |
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Description:
| Learn about various types of bridges: beam, arch, truss, cable stayed, suspension, and others. Find out about different bridge designs. Learn what materials are used in bridge building. Discover what forces influence bridges and what engineers need to know before building a bridge. Includes photographs, schematic drawings, online games, video clips, and instructions how to build bridges from paper, toothpicks, and marshmallows. There are links to eThemes resources on Mackinac Bridge and Architecture. |
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Grade Level:
| 4, 5, 6 |
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Resource Links:
| PBS: Building Big: All about Bridges
Explore links on this page to learn about different types of bridges and where each type is used. Visit the interactive "Forces Lab" to find out about connection between forces and shapes. Try engineering skills in "The Bridge Challenge" and click on other links to learn more about selected bridges.
ABCD's Bridge Design Tips for Kids
Here kids can learn how to design a bridge. There are pictures of model bridges students have built. Learn about forms, materials, connections, and more.
Type of Structures: Steel, Concrete, Arches, & Cables
Find out about materials that are used in building bridges. Learn about steel and concrete constructions, arch and beam bridges.
Bridge Basics
Learn what factors predefine types of bridges. View schematic drawings of bridges.
The Basic Bridge Types
To learn more about bridges click on the images of girder, arch, truss, cable stayed, rigid frame, and suspension types of bridges.
PBS: NOVA: Build a Bridge
Learn about four main types of bridges and build your own bridge online. Includes video clips.
PBS: American Experience: Secrets of Master Builder
Learn how James B. Eads built the first steel bridge in the world over the Mississippi River. Click on the image to view the step-by-step animated construction process. Select the "St. Louis Bridge Video" link on the left to view a video clip about the St. Louis bridge which connects Missouri with Illinois.
Geometry of Bridge Construction
Learn the geometry of building bridges. Read the history of the bridge building. Includes images and photographs of the world's most famous bridges.
Bridge Building
In this game students will have to make a decision about what type of bridge to build based on given location.
Bridge Designer
Design a truss bridge online using knowledge of arithmetic, geometry, and bridge building skills.
File Card Bridges
Learn how to build a bridge from paper and guess how many pennies it will hold.
How Stuff Works: Bridges
Read about three types of bridges: beam, arch, and suspension. Find out how forces of compression and tension influence them. NOTE: The site has pop-up ads and banner ads. NOTE: The reading level is for older students.
Golden Gate Bridge
Read about the Golden Gate Bridge in San-Francisco, one of the longest suspension bridges in the world. NOTE: The site has a link to web sites with ads.
Royal Gorge Bridge and Park
Learn interesting facts about the world's highest suspension bridge, the Royal George Bridge in Colorado.
New River Gorge Bridge
Learn about the world's longest single arch steel bridge of West Virginia, the New River Gorge Bridge. NOTE: The site has a link to web sites with ads.
Rainbow Bridge
Here are fun facts and a photograph of the Rainbow Bridge, the Utah's largest known arch bridge built by nature.
eThemes Resource: Mackinac Bridge
Learn about Michigan's Mackinac Bridge, the world's third longest suspension bridge. Find out about the struggle it took to get this bridge built and the time it saves travelers. Includes historical and current photographs, maps, and live views from Webcams.
eThemes Resource: Architecture
Learn about architecture around the world including how the St. Louis Gateway Arch was built, Hoover Dam, famous architects, and stories about the people who built them. There are sites with lesson plans on how to teach students to draw floor plans, make blue prints, and draw their own architectural plans. Also included are several pictures of famous structures, lists of architecture books, and glossaries of words.
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Education Standards:
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MO Standards:
1.3, 1.5, 1.6, 3, 1, 2
If you are an eMINTS teacher and standards have not been defined for your
state, click the button below to request that they be assigned to this resource.
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