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Video Lessons

Material Properties: Which Material Makes the Strongest Bridge?

Summary

Grade Range
2nd
Group Size
4 students
Active Time
80 minutes
Total Time
80 minutes
Area of Science
Materials Science
Civil Engineering
Key Concepts
Material properties, strength, flexibility, engin
Credits
Svenja Lohner, PhD, Science Buddies Alumni
Ben Finio, PhD, Science Buddies
Video narration by Jennifer E Paz

This activity was inspired by Prof. Margot Vigeant of Bucknell University.
Special thanks to Cynthia Burke and Chris Bell for helpful discussions about this activity.

Pricing
Free for a limited time thanks to individual donors
Video Lesson
Get Student Link

Overview

Bridges are made of many different materials: steel, stone, wood and even rope. How do engineers decide which materials to use? In this activity, your students will learn about material properties, test the strength and flexibility of several materials, and use their test information to predict which material will result in the strongest bridge. They will test their hypotheses by buiding simple bridges from each material and determining which bridge can hold the most weight.

Learning Objectives

Materials

For each student group:

For each student:

For teacher preparation:

Prep Work

  • Cut all of the building materials (thin paper, thick paper, aluminum foil, and wax or parchament paper) to be the same dimensions as a standard sheet of printer paper (8.5 by 11 inches in the United States; adjust as needed in other countries).
  • Set up a bridge testing station for each student group. At each test station, set up two stacks of books 10 inches (about 25 centimeters) apart. The height of the book stacks should be around 2 inches (about 5 centimeters). Use tape to mark where the book stacks should be placed, as shown below. This will help students re-adjust the location of the book stacks in case they get shifted during testing.
Two 2-inch-high stacks of books spaced about 10 inches apart. The location of the books is marked with tape. Image Credit: Svenja Lohner, Science Buddies / Science Buddies
  • Print out a worksheet for each student.

Engage (10 minutes)

In this video, students are asked to think about what makes a bridge strong. While exploring this question, students are introduced to the concept of material properties.

Explore (60 minutes. Can be split into two 30-minute parts.)

In this video, students become material scientists and explore the central question "Which material makes the strongest bridge" by testing the properties of several materials. Using their test data, students predict which of the materials would make the strongest bridge. Step-by-step instructions then guide them through building and testing bridges. By analyzing their test data, students determine which of their materials makes the strongest bridge.

Classroom tip: This exploration can easily be split into two sections and done on separate days. Part 1: testing material properties. Part 2: bridge building and testing.

Reflect (10 minutes)

This video summarizes for students what they have learned about material properties. Students are also shown that using the best bridge-building material to build something else, like a boat, can have different outcomes. Through this experience, students reflect on the fact that different material properties are suited to different purposes.

NGSS Alignment

This lesson helps students prepare for these Next Generation Science Standards Performance Expectations:
  • 2-PS1-2. Analyze data obtained from testing different materials to determine which materials have the properties that are best suited for an intended purpose.
This lesson focuses on these aspects of NGSS Three Dimensional Learning:

Science & Engineering Practices
Planning and Carrying out Investigations. Plan and conduct an investigation collaboratively to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence to answer a question.

Make observations (firsthand or from media) and/or measurements to collect data that can be used to make comparisons.

Engaging in Argument from Evidence. Construct an argument with evidence to support a claim.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
PS1.A: Structure and Properties of Matter. Different properties are suited to different purposes.
Crosscutting Concepts
Cause and Effect. Simple tests can be designed to gather evidence to support or refute student ideas about causes.

Influence of Engineering, Technology, and Science, on Society and the Natural World. Every human-made product is designed by applying some knowledge of the natural world and is built using materials derived from the natural world.

Assess

The student worksheet can be used to evaluate students' understanding of the activity and basic concepts.

Extensions

Activities

Which Materials Conduct Electricity?
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Electricity powers many of the devices you use every day. Those devices are made up of circuits, ranging from very simple (like in a lamp with a single light bulb) to very complex (like in a computer). Try this project to build your own simple circuit and use it to test which common household materials conduct electricity. Read more

Lesson Plans

Paper Bridge Design Challenge
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Lesson Plan Grade: Kindergarten-2nd
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Your students have probably walked or ridden over a bridge at some point in their lives. In this engineering activity they will design and make bridges out of folded pieces of paper, and test how much weight they can hold with pennies. How does the shape of a bridge affect its strength? Let your students explore and find out with this lesson! This lesson can be expanded to a second lesson looking at how the material a bridge is made out of can change its strength; see second lesson for details. Read more
NGSS Performance Expectations:
  • K-2-ETS1-2. Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.
  • K-2-ETS1-3. Analyze data from tests of two objects designed to solve the same problem to compare the strengths and weaknesses of how each performs.
Testing Material Properties
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Lesson Plan Grade: 1st-2nd
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Plastic, metal, wood, and stone. We encounter many different materials every day. Each object around us is made of a specific material. Why are they not all made from the same material? The answer is that every material has different properties; some are hard and others are soft, some are transparent and others are opaque. For each product that is produced, the material from which it is made determines many of its properties. This is why material testing is so important. These tests allow… Read more
NGSS Performance Expectations:
  • 2-PS1-1. Plan and conduct an investigation to describe and classify different kinds of materials by their observable properties.

Careers

Materials Scientist and Engineer
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Career Profile
Materials scientists study materials and how they behave. They do tests to understand the properties of materials such as strength or flexibility. These tests help them decide if a material is good for building a specific product. Material scientists even design new materials that can be used to make things stronger or bigger or create totally new products. Read more
Civil Engineers
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Career Profile
Civil engineers design huge structures like skyscrapers, stadiums, and bridges. It is their job to make sure these structures can safely support the weight of all the people on or inside them. This is a very important job, since people can be badly hurt when buildings or bridges collapse. A civil engineer probably helped design the school you are sitting in right now! Read more
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