The STEAM of Bridges

On Monday 11 June Churcher's College Senior School 3rd Year (Year 9) pupils enjoyed a fascinating day of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths) activities as they explored all things "bridges". 

Sessions included:

• (SCIENCE) Bridges go bad -  Why and how bridges can "go wrong", with pupils conducting experiments with pendulums and string.
• (TECH) DT Bridges - Teams built a model bridge, testing the load, choosing materials and making small-scale bridges.
• (ENGINEERING) Bridge Building in The Gallery – Working as a team, pupils constructed a large full-scale model bridge. 
• (ART) The Art of Bridges – The pupils built their own architectural models from paper and card.
• (MATHS) The Maths of Bridges – Exploring what calculations go into creating a stable bridge. 

The pupils all had a brilliant day - see what they go up to on our Flickr Gallery below:

To see an example of how a bridge can "go bad" see this clip of the collapse of the Tacoma Narrow Bridge back in the 1940s. At the time it was the longest suspension bridge in the world however, its main span collapsed into the Tacoma Narrows four months after opening as a result of extreme winds. The bridge collapse had lasting effects on science and engineering: