3rd / 2nd class - Bridge Building

Post date: Apr 23, 2018 9:54:35 PM

The boys and girls in Ms Moriaritys 2nd and 3rd class and Ms Dunnes 3rd class  recently explored the area of bridge building. They boys and girls were shown a simple piece of paper spanning 2 piles of books and a weight was placed into the centre. The performance of the paper was discussed and the boys and girls were challenged to design a bridge using paper that would work better. They started by discussing the properties of the paper and identifying the properties that were suitable for the task and the properties that we would need to try and change. (paper is too flexible)

The boys and girls tried out a number of techniques including the following

• • using card instead of paper

  • folding the paper

  • placing some support mechanism under the paper e.g. a pair of rulers 

  • clamping the paper in place so that it couldnt slide down the books. i.e/. placing extra weights on top of the paper.

The nest results were found by placing the rulers under the paper. The pupils had great fun. They also used maths by weighing the amount of blocks etc to place onto the bridge.