Bridge Engineering for the Elementary Grades

Abstract

A one hour presentation was developed to get elementary school students interested in engineering. The presentation begins with the students building a six feet long, structurally sound bridge which they can crawl across. A pictorial presentation helps them learn to identify some of the different types of bridges: truss, stone arch, steel arch, concrete girder, cable‐stayed, and suspension. They are introduced to the fundamental engineering concepts of tension and compression. These concepts are reinforced by demonstrating that if a tension member is replaced with a chain then the bridge is still strong, but if a compression member is replaced with a chain the bridge will collapse. The presentation was integrated into the engineering curriculum by having senior design groups develop new bridge concepts and introduce new ideas into the presentation. This project provides a good senior design problem and helps keep the program fresh and interesting for the grade school children.

Using a Nationwide Internet‐Based Bridge Design Contest as a Vehicle for Engineering Outreach

“…Early in the development of this project, the bicentennial planning committee recommended that the contest involve model bridge building-an activity that fits well with existing elementary and secondary school curricula. Carroll developed a bridge-building project for the elementary grades [15], and such projects are ubiquitous in secondary schools as well. Many middle school technology curricula include bridge-building modules, and high school physics courses often study trusses as an application of statics.…”

R3 + D3 = A Learning Tool for Science and Engineering

“…Efforts do exist to bring engineering experiences into primary and secondary education. [12][13][14][15][16][17][18] The most valuable efforts, however, appear isolated rather than incorporated into the curricula of educational systems. They rely on the interests of individual faculty members, and many focus on a particular field of engineering (e.g., aeronautical engineering).…”

Development and Application of Integrative STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Education Model Based on Scientific Inquiry

“…는 문제의 답(예, 산출물의 제작)을 찾기 위해 주어진 정보의 통합과 모델링/시작품 제작의 응용 과정을 포함한다. 공학적 설계 기반의 문제 해결을 통해 얻어진 과학, 수학, 기술 관련 지식들은 STEM과 관련된 교과 지식의 전이(knowledge transfer)를 증가시키고, 통합적 지식의 유용에 대한 이해를 높여준다 Carroll, 1997;Kwon, Park & Lee, 2009;Smith & Burghardt, 2007 (Kim, 2011)과 Ewha-STEAM 융합 모형 (Kim et al, 2012) (Sanders, 2006(Sanders, , 2009(Sanders, , 2011. 통합적 STEM 교육은 기술/공학적 설계 기반의 학습에 초점을 두고 있으며, 학교에서 STEM 영역 이외의 언어, 사회, 예술, 체육 등의 교과와 통합을 통해 더 활성화 되고 효과가 더 향상될 수 있다 (Sanders & Wells, 2011).…”