POPSICLE BRIDGES

PROBLEM

• Make a popsicle bridge that can hold a few pounds of weights and span 36 inches or more
• Find a way to relieve some of the stress in the bridge.

MATERIALS

• 200 popsicle sticks
• 1 glue bottle
• 1 set of pliers
• 3 smart, and motivated students

VOCABULARY

• Elastic Deformation- structure is strained but goes back to it's original shape.
• Plastic Deformation- structure is strained but doesn't go back to it's original shape.
• Compressive stress- stress caused by pushing together
• Tensil stress- stress caused by pulling apart
• Strain- deformation

RESEARCH WEBSITES

• http://www.tryengineering.org/lesson-plans/popsicle-bridge
• http://www.instructables.com/id/Popsicle-Stick-Bridge/
• http://mathemati.ca/popsicle.html

QUESTIONS

• How do engineers deal with stress?
• What kind of bridge did our group use?
• How much weights did our bridge hold?
• What advice would we give to the sixth graders for the bridge?
• If we were given 200 more popsicle sticks, what would we improve?

ANSWERS

• Stress is dealed, by dissipating it. It is streched out a long distance.
• The type of bridge that my group used, was the beam bridge.
• Our bridge held 12.5 pounds. We think that the bridge broke, because the sides were very weak.
• The advice we would give to the 6th graders, is that, they should really reinforce their bridge.
• We would reinforce all the sides, and redo the sides, so they would be more stronger.

BUILDING STAGE

CONCULSION

• We learned that stress and tension all have a part in making a bridge.
• We also learned that we need teamwork to make the bridge great.
• Compression is a great force that we needed to fight off.
• A lot of time, and effort had to go into building the bridge.
• Also, a lot of research had to be done, for the bridge to be perfect.