Gifted "Bridge Builders"

It has been said often that children learn best with hands on activities and Ms. Kearley's gifted class activity is a good example. Kelsi Hardy, a student in the gifted class wrote about the unit and her experience with bridge building. FASCINATING!

Our last unit in gifted was about Bridges. We learned about the different types of bridges by discussing, doing experiments and the big project.
The first thing we did was discuss the different types of bridges. We also did a poster board. We looked up different types of bridges on the internet and glued them on the poster board.
The next thing we did was an experiment. Ms. Kearly gave us index cards and a plastic bag of pennies. She had us lay the index card on 2 books, like a bridge and estimate how many pennies the “bridge” would hold. Then we tested our estiment. After that, we folded the index cards different ways to see which way would hold more pennies.
Last, but definitely not least, we did the big project. She had us choose a type of bridge like a truss bridge, arch bridge, or a cantilever. She gave us a big piece of paper and a ruler for us to draw a blueprint. When we were finished with that, we got to make it. She gave us 3 materials: straws, paper clips and string. When we were finally finished with that, we got to destroy our bridges with a plastic cup and pennies. We placed our bridge across 2 chairs and hung a plastic cup on the bottom of it with paper clips. When all the bridges were destroyed, we put them together again and someone took them home.
To conclude, the big project taught us to discuss, experiment, and draw a conclusion on a theory. Through this we also learned about the different types of bridges and the strengths and weaknesses of each type.

Kelsi Hardy
R.L. Young 6th grade

Thanks, Kelsi for this inside view of a very fun group of lessons.