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Westwind Elementary School

Oak Ridge Elementary Third Graders Learn About Bridges and Force

Kay said that she likes to use Mystery Science lessons in her classes. She said that these lessons include hands on activities for her students to participate in, which they love!

“To start this lesson, my students learned about three types of bridges created around the world: a pillar, arch, and suspension bridge,” Kay said. “This allowed my students to see how bridges are made, to help spark their minds for their own creation later.”

Kay said during this activity students were simply given two pieces of paper to build a bridge that could support as many small tiles as possible.

“They were not allowed to use glue or tape either,” Kay said. “The only exception was they could use scissors to cut the two pieces of paper into multiple pieces to help create a stronger bridge.”

Kay said that while walking around her classroom while her students were building their bridges, she was impressed with the creativity she saw.

“They worked really well with sharing their ideas and working together to try and build the strongest bridge,” Kay said. “One group decided to make a combination of an arch bridge and a pillar bridge. They realized the more pillars they created under the arch of their bridge, helped push up on the bridge, therefore creating a balanced force. They ended up having a total of 219 tiles on this bridge before it collapsed!”

Kay said that this activity also helped with her student’s problem solving skills.

“When some failed the first time, they didn’t give up,” Kay said. “Instead, they talked about why their bridge was weak, what they needed to do to make it stronger so the pulling force of the tiles on the bridge from gravity wouldn’t break it, and retested it.”

Kay explained that she likes to incorporate activities like this to keep her students engaged, and to ensure they are learning different types of skills while focusing on science.

“Creating these bridges helped students think outside of the box, work collaboratively, and get a hands-on experience to understand how balanced and unbalanced forces work,” Kay said. “They realized the pushing up force on the bridge from underneath needed to be stronger than the pulling down force of the weight of the tiles from gravity, so it would create a balanced force and not break.”

Kay expressed that she hopes her students took away a deeper understanding of the lesson and are able to retain the information they learned.

“I believe having fun, engaging activities in the classroom is important for student learning,” Kay said. “Students tend to be more involved and want to participate. I am a strong believer that hands on activities help improve student achievement because it helps them retain information better in a fun, memorable way. I think it helps with student behavior as well. Getting up, moving around, and staying busy is important for all people, especially elementary aged kids. “

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