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.
Your students journey into the Subduction Zone to solve the geologic mystery of how the rocks you see in the cliffs of the Golden Gate formed millions of years ago. In this virtual exploration, students will collect rock samples in the field, examine and identify their samples in the laboratory, and use this information to piece together a subduction zone, layer-by-layer in geologic context. A great way to introduce subduction or conclude a unit by checking for understanding.
In this activity, students reinforce their understanding of compound machines by building a catapult. This compound machine consists of a lever and a wheel-and-axel. Catapults have been designed by engineers for a variety of purposes from lifting boulders into the air for warfare to human beings for entertainment; the projectiles in this activity are grapes for a magic act. Given the building materials, students design and build their catapult to launch a grape a certain distance.
Introduction to continuum mechanics and material modeling of engineering materials based on first energy principles: deformation and strain; momentum balance, stress and stress states; elasticity and elasticity bounds; plasticity and yield design. Overarching theme is a unified mechanistic language using thermodynamics, which allows understanding, modeling and design of a large range of engineering materials.
