Display a large picture of a famous bridge with the 5W's (who, where, why, what, when) given each day or week. Students are to study the facts on their own for trivia questions each day at the end of class for points or rewards. A Bonus Question of the Day is on the board and the first student to answer it wins. This encourages students to arrive early.
Centers in the Classroom
Eight centers are spread around the classroom perimeter. The students would spend 20 minutes at each and rotate. This amount of time can be adjusted depending on the attention span of the students. They would record their experience and any experiential work in their Bridge Journal. Acceptable behavior and effort will also be explained and points will be given at the end of class. The centers would have large posters explaining the procedures and expectations of each. Handouts and worksheets will be hung in folders or pockets attached to the poster. The teacher continually moves around to coach and guide.
The eight centers are:
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1. Computer research center for students to design their Bridge Notebook cover, complete questions, scavenger hunts and find facts (5W's - who, where, why, what, when) and pictures to be displayed.
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2. Interactive computer program center to show how forces act and react in bridge structures, how a bridge will hold together during an earthquake, how tensile strength is measured and other amazing programs.
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3. Audio-visual center contains books, poems and videos about bridges. Opening Day of the Brooklyn Bridge is interesting and there are many others. Low level readers can listen to tapes of the reading as they follow along. Students can make up their own bridge stories and poems and they or others can illustrate them.
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4. Game center includes unscramble bridge vocabulary words, crossword puzzles, hangman and word search games to learn bridge language.
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5. Puzzle center contains bridge pictures cut up in squares to be put together. Also students will play Match That Piece! The teacher makes two prints of a detailed picture. One copy is cut up into some very small pieces that would be challenging to identify by themselves. A small square piece of a bridge picture has to be placed correctly on another complete picture.
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6. Calculating center has mathematical bridge problems to solve, categorized in easy, medium and advanced skill levels.
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7. Build a bridge center displays instructions and materials to build a small model bridge. There are many choices of materials, such as, toothpicks, spaghetti, straws, coffee stirrers, cardboard, popsicle sticks, balsa, and found objects.
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8. Drawing center has materials for designing a scale model of a bridge on graph paper with side and top view, drawing a bridge from a photo and or original ideas, designing a tower for a large suspension bridge and creating a graph in color of bridge information. There is an activity included in this unit about coloring various geometric elements and shapes in a truss.
Speakers and Field Trips
A civil engineer can be invited to talk about his job. Students should write 5 questions for the engineer before the speaker arrives. Questions can be brainstormed to spark interest, such as what types of projects has the engineer undertaken, what courses in school are recommended, what advice can be given to present students, what is the best and worst part of being a civil engineer, what are other job opportunities in bridge building, what are their requirements to obtain and hold a job and what do they pay.
A field trip could be to walk the Brooklyn Bridge or to any bridge in the local city to identify the functional parts and aesthetic appeal.
The Bridge Notebook/Portfolio
Each student will keep an organized notebook of the activities and information in this unit. The cover will designed by the student on a computer.
Page 2 will be a daily effort point sheet. A point is given to each student for being on time, coming prepared, completing the five minute focusing DO NOW, being cooperative, and cleaning up, for a total of 5 points. Another 5 points is given for working constructively all period, for a daily total of 10 points.
Page 3 is the check off sheet for completion of the activities. When a lesson is complete, the teacher signs it off. This is a clear and organized way for the student and teacher to see what is incomplete, especially after an absence. Organizational and study skills are learned and practiced. Another alternative is to have each line contain each day's work assignment and description of the lesson.
Page 4 is a rubric to assess the completed portfolio;
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1. Completed activities.
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2. Completed journals
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3. Neat and organized
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4. Cover design
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5. Self-evaluation
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6. Participation in discussions
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7. Extra credit
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8. Cooperated as part of a team
