What makes bridges so strong?

“My kids LOVED the bridge building activity. I taught both 3rd grade classes this lesson, and they had an amazing time learning from their mistakes and building stronger bridges. We went on a field trip to San Francisco a week after I taught this lesson, and all the kids started shouting, "Look, a suspension bridge!!! With pillars!!" when they saw the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a proud moment for me!”

· AnnA · Teacher

“My students went so outside the box to create designs that would hold weight. They tried and failed and tried again. They loved this!!!”

· Abigail · Teacher

“Kids were engaged and excited! The emphasis on the "test and redesign" model worked well--this is an important process for students to start to grapple with, and can be applied to any inquiry or research opportunity that we encounter. We'll be able to connect back to this lesson as a touchstone for many things we do in the future. ”

· Clancy · Teacher

“Students loved learning about the many different types of bridges! During the bridge design activity, I noticed my students using problem solving skills, persistence, and teamwork in order to make the strongest bridge.”

· Fabiola · Teacher

“The students really enjoyed learning about different types of bridges. Their favorite was the Golden Gate Bridge because it was familiar to them. They also liked the competitive nature of building the strongest bridge. ”

· Burleigh · Teacher

“My students LOVED this lesson! The videos were a perfect way to introduce the lesson and the paper bridges were easy and taught the engineering design process!”

· Nyla · Teacher

“Love how the concepts are explained to the students before they start working. I've used this lesson before, and the students are able to work in groups independently after watching the videos. They love this lesson!”

· Lynn · Teacher

“It was interesting to see how the students communicated with each other with bridge building and extend the knowledge gained from the video. I love how the lessons promote thinking and collaboration.”

· Viannie · Teacher

“The kids really loved making bridges, and discovered it's a lot harder than they thought! They were engaged during the video and enjoyed the entire lesson.”

· Julie · Teacher

“Students were so excited and engaged in learning! I appreciate how complete the lesson is, with teacher tips, materials, videos, and all directions given clearly. We LOVE Mystery Science!”

· Kristin · Teacher

“My class loved learning about and designing bridges, especially since a new bridge is being built in our area. I also did the extension activity with gumdrops. They loved this as well.”

· Judy · Teacher

“Students were engaged and wanted to try other ways to build bridges. The experiment morphed into a research and writing project to learn about more types of bridges and about building designs.”

· Julie · Teacher

“You prepared the students with the great videos in a way that left the path of thinking and creativity open. The activity also allowed my second language learners to demonstrate their incredible intelligence. Their bridges were amazing!”

· · Teacher

“Love the directions with plenty of visuals for my dual language class! The whole bridge design project encourages greater thinking and problem solving.”

· · Teacher

“Watching the students problem solve and come up with new solutions to make their bridge stronger. They had so much fun and were completely engaged!”

· Melissa · Teacher

“Our boys getting going right away, excited to design their first bridge! They were enthusiastic while adding and counting more pennies/coins. After the first bridge collapse, both of my boys were designing their next one, with changes in mind. My 9 year old son, Cody, made a folded bridge with 4 pillar supports. That bridge held 293 coins! How fun! Thank you, Angela”

· Angela · Homeschooler

“They loved adding more and more coins. I ran out of coins for some of the paper bridges. I extended this with making human bridges. They loved experiencing the weight, pulls and pushes of the structures. They really got creative within their groups. I wish I could show you the great pictures I got!!”

· Heather · Teacher

“The students were amazed at how many pennies the two pieces of paper actually held!”

· Rosann · Teacher

“This is the 2nd time I've taught this lesson. Building, re-designing, learning from our failures- all of it was great!”

· Tracie · Teacher

“Watching my students physically moving, sharing ideas, and trying to figure out how they could win a tug-of-war against an elephant”

· Davina · Teacher

“My students loved it. They worked together building bridges and testing their ideas, then trying out a different method or way learning from their mistakes. A great activity. I learned much myself. Thank you, ”

· Dixie · Teacher

“My students loved being able to see different bridge strategies in your videos, which they were then able to apply in their own designs!”

· Michelle · Teacher

“What a great way to learn about strength in engineering! He had fun building bridges out of paper. The lesson is very entertaining!”

· Denise · Homeschooler

“Building the bridges was such an exciting and fun activity! Students discovered which bridge supported the most weight. So much fun!”

· Linda · Teacher

“Loved it! The kids had a BLAST! They ended up using the weights for our balances instead of pennies and that gave us math review too!”

· Alisa · Teacher

“Your videos are the best! My students had such great conversations with the prompts in the video. I love this program. THANK YOU!”

· Amy · Teacher

“My students really liked making the human bridges. Even though they had done an experiment similar to the paper bridge activity, your visuals gave it deeper depth and made them excited to try it with more effort in their attempts.”

· Linda · Teacher

“I used this with our robotics club members. It was a great way to extend their thinking in building a challenge for the local roborave.”

· Liese · Teacher

“The best part was listening to Doug explain in simple language the workings of a roller coaster. We also loved the live action videos; we felt like we were there! Giving the students time to discuss their ideas is a great feature, too. Thanks for such a great product. Our PTO is purchasing a subscription for us next year because we enjoyed our free trial!”

· Melanie · Teacher

“Easy for parents and easy for kids to learn. It's interesting too!”

· Yuyan · Homeschooler

“My students had a blast building bridges. They even started taking pictures of bridges on their time to make comparisons to what they built during the exploration.”

· · Teacher

“The students enjoyed building their bridges. I enjoyed how they had to build upon each bridge to make it better. It really brought up our topic of Growth Mindset.”

· Jerrica · Admin

“The kids really paid attention to the real bridge building techniques used in the video and applied them to their paper bridges.”

· Jan · Teacher

“Using simple materials has resulted in learning complex content!!! ”

· Marie · Teacher

“I hit the wrong button on Mystery 1....it should have been a 5. Best part of ALL lessons...creative activities with easy-to-find materials and instructions that make sense! It is SO OBVIOUS that someone familiar with kids and teachers has tested these activities because they WORK as described. And did I mention they have readily available supplies? ”

· · Teacher

“The ease of materials and the support of the videos. The kids loved it!”

· Kim · Teacher

“It is so nice to hear the kids say they love science!!”

· Michele · Teacher

“The class had a contest to see which bring was stronger...they loved that!”

· Donna · Teacher

“This went very well. The kids tried different ideas and once they failed, they thought about what they should do next time. One team was very successful on their second bridge and then I noticed other bridges were similar. We had a great discussion about how engineers will consult each other and share ideas. They just need to give credit to the person who helped. Thank you for making this. We will be watching the video about the Tacoma Bridge and doing the assessment soon. Can't wait to do more:)”

· Donna · Teacher

“I love the exploration, the videos, and the pacing. It is very educational, and it seems like it is taught from a teacher's perspective. ”

· Rachel · Teacher

“This was one of my favorites so far! Can't wait to do #3!!! These lessons make my life SO easy! ”

· Jenifer · Teacher

“This lesson went fantastic. Students and staff loved building the bridges. It was fun to watch them "fail" and figure out what they could do to hold more coins. They didn't want to go to their next class!”

· Callie · Teacher

“I LOVE this! My students are begging for more.”

· Colette · Teacher

“My kids (ages 6 and 9) absolutely loved building bridges out of paper! They're obsessed now and keep trying out different shapes. Makes me so happy. I love the way the experiments make the science lessons really come to life.”

· Mandi · Homeschooler

“Excellent! I loved that the students had to use critical thinking skills in order to build the bridge and determine which type of bridge would be the strongest! The students enjoyed testing the bridge, reading about the Tacoma bridge, and watching the video about the Tacoma bridge!”

· Shonda · Teacher

“I used it with my special ed science and they loved it! You have set this up so user-friendly! Can't wait to try more!”

· Katy · Teacher

“One of the best ones yet! My kids most enjoyed building their own bridges with paper. My 6 year old built one that held all the coins in the house- more than 60! Plus a bag of centimeter cubes, plastic tiles, toy cars, and a metal harmonica. He wanted me to "take a picture and send it to Doug!" So much fun!”

· Audrey · Homeschooler

“LOVE!!!! My students were so engaged in building bridges! To walk around my classroom as they worked and hear the science talk and the vocabulary used by my students was amazing! Thank you for helping me provide my students with meaningful lessons!”

· Christy · Teacher

“Watching my students use the different bridge designs discussed in the video, just out of two pieces of paper. Seeing my ELL student come up with one of the top designs that held the second most pennies.(only two less that the top) His smile was priceless!! The students were really into it. We went back to it the next day to see if they could improve their design.”

· Kierin · Teacher

“The students were SO excited to build the bridges and be "engineers"! They applied what they had learned through the video session to build structures that held more than 100 pennies!”

· Karen · Teacher

“The kids really enjoyed learning about the Golden Gate Bridge and the various types of bridges. They loved the bridge building activity to go along with the lesson. I stretched this lesson even further because they enjoyed it so much!”

· Jobeth · Teacher

“All of it! Watching science in action is so much better than just reading about it...my 5th grader is hooked and looks forward to the lesson each day. Thanks so much for this program!”

· Sabrina · Homeschooler

“The students were engaged the entire time, from the videos to the actual activity. They came up with great questions and ideas for improving their bridges.”

· Cindy · Teacher

“He really loved the extras at the end, where we found the video of the "Galloping Gertie" bridge collapse. However, he told me today that his favorite part of homeschool is science, "because of the videos". THANK YOU!!!”

· Mara · Homeschooler

“A nice review video at the end so they can say that their design was one of the one featured or if they came up with something else. Closure :) First one I did and I loved it...so did my 30 students!”

· Amy · Teacher

“It was very interesting to learn about the fall of Tacoma bridge! What an interesting story. We also had a blast building paper bridges without tape using only two pieces of paper. A pair of my students managed to build a bridge together that held 863 uncooked pinto beans! We had to substitute beans for pennies because we didn't have enough. Thanks for the great lesson, we can't wait to do lesson three!”

· Stephanie · Homeschooler

“My students LOVED the bridge experiment! WE love Mystery Science!!!!!”

· Kim · Teacher

“The kids had a great time building the bridges. It became quite the competition between them. The bridge they built together held over 600 pennies :) They also commented on how smart the man in the video is. Thanks for this great resource. Our homeschool science is much cooler thanks to this program!!”

· April · Homeschooler

Bridge Challenge worksheet	15 copies
Bridge Designer’s Notebook worksheet	30 copies
Building Bridges Teacher Tips worksheet	1 copy
Blank Paper (8.5 x 11")	90 sheets
Hardcover Books	90 books
Rulers	30 rulers
Scissors	30 pairs
Pennies We recommend having at least 400 pennies on hand for a classroom. Some bridges are VERY strong.	Details 400 coins

What makes bridges so strong?

push

pull

force

balanced forces

unbalanced forces

design

engineer

pillar bridge

arch bridge

suspension bridge

truss bridge

model

Vocabulary

Unit Readings

Assessments

Image & Video Credits

22 mins

30 mins

Share this lesson

Student link

Google Classroom

Email parents

Extend this lesson

Vocabulary

Unit Readings

Assessments

Mini-lessons

Activities

Going Further

Transcripts

Open-and-go lessons that inspire kids to love science.

Sign up now for tons of free lessons like this one!

What makes bridges so strong?

push

pull

force

balanced forces

unbalanced forces

design

engineer

pillar bridge

arch bridge

suspension bridge

truss bridge

model

Vocabulary

Unit Readings

Assessments

Image & Video Credits

Featured Reviews

Activity Prep

Prepare With Some Engineering Inspiration

22 mins

30 mins

Share this lesson

Student link

Google Classroom

Email parents

Extend this lesson

Vocabulary

Unit Readings

Assessments

Mini-lessons

Activities

Going Further

Transcripts

Is the video not playing properly?

This episode is locked

This episode is locked

This episode is locked