Survey potential bridge sites, research bridge design, and select the right bridge for the right location in this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site.
This curricular unit introduces students to basic Civil Engineering concepts in an exciting and interactive manner. Bridges and skyscrapers, the two most visible products of Civil Engineers, will be discussed in depth. Students will have a chance to design and build balsa wood structures, as well as understand the design principles behind these structures that allow them to withstand vertical and lateral forces. There is also an emphasis on how materials absorb different types of forces. Since the ability to visualize in three dimensions is imperative to civil engineers, there is a visual, hands-on activity designed to teach three dimensional coordinate systems.
Classroom posters with engineering and historical facts about the Bridge available for download.
Our goal was to create a unit that explores all aspects of the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge from its conception to the present. The unit explores such things as first-hand stories from the men who devoted years of their lives to the bridge, and the science that has made the bridge such an enduring part of the Pacific Coastline. Students will perform research online as well as study articles written when the bridge was built. They will read about the engineers who are seismically retrofitting the bridge, and in a lab setting they will test the strength of cables made from copper and bicycle wire. By the close of the unit, students should understand the interconnectedness of the world that we live in, especially through the eyes of a historian and a physicist.
Introduces students to the theory, tools, and techniques of engineering design and creative problem-solving, as well as design issues and practices in civil engineering. Includes several design cases, with an emphasis on built facilities (e.g., buildings, bridges and roads). Project design explicitly concerns technical approaches as well as consideration of the existing built environment, natural environment, economic and social factors, and expected life span. A large design case is introduced which is used in the subsequent specialty area design subjects (1.031, 1.041, 1.051) and the capstone design subject (1.013).
In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, learn about engineering innovations that could help detect a bridge's structural weaknesses before they become dangerous.
To introduce the two types of stress that materials undergo compression and tension students examine compressive and tensile forces and learn about bridges and skyscrapers. They construct their own building structure using marshmallows and spaghetti to see which structure can hold the most weight. In an associated literacy activity, students explore the psychological concepts of stress and stress management, and complete a writing activity.
This course is a student-presented seminar in combinatorics, graph theory, and discrete mathematics in general. Instruction and practice in written and oral communication is emphasized, with participants reading and presenting papers from recent mathematics literature and writing a final paper in a related topic.
