Bridges

Sponsored by the National Science Foundation’s

Materials Research Science & Engineering Program at Brown University

    During the summer of 2002, I was hired by the MRSEC/engineering department at Brown University to participate in the RET Program.  My goal was to develop a curriculum unit that I could bring back to the classroom. I currently teach 8th grade math at Riverside Middle School in East Providence. With the help of Professor Allan Bower, I developed a bridge building unit using an excel spreadsheet. With the spreadsheet the students are able to enter design variables for a suspension bridge. After developing the design of their bridge on the spreadsheet, they will construct the bridge.

  Link to Various Bridges              Instructions for Spreadsheet              PowerPoint Presentation

 Lesson Plan for Bridge Unit           West Point Bridge Building Contest           Student Pictures