We’ve rounded the end of term off in style this time – Scafell have been designing and building bridges!
From studying famous bridges around the world, we found out the types of tricks engineers use to make their constructions strong, light and as cheap as possible. We looked at lots of different engineering methods to join and construct the sections of our bridge, thinking carefully about the parts that were in tension and compression. We found out about the strongest types of shape, and how to reinforce sections of cardboard so that they are strong in lots of different directions.. We made our own cardboard ply for the decks of our bridges, used triangle beams to support them and used plates, tabs and flanges to allow us to screw the bridges together.
Have a look at the media gallery below to check out our creations – some were super strong and able to hold over 5 kilograms, others had a massive span of over a meter! Well done to everyone who took part, especially those who tried, failed and tried again until their design was just right!
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- A bold design of a suspension bridge. Definitely the winner of the tallest platform!
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- The strongest bridge, tensioned by a clever counterweight system.
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- Our bridge with the highest throughput – look at all that traffic!
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- A really strong ply made this beam bridge very sturdy,
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- Maybe not the strongest, but definitely the longest!
