In the first few days of school, students in Mrs. Binal Shah’s STEM classes got to know each other and enjoyed a fun activity where they constructed bridges in a fun first-week activity.

Each student received construction paper, Elmer’s glue, scissors and masking tape and were asked to build a strong bridge that could withstand the most weight without buckling, Mrs. Shah said.

“This is simple, but I did this to get to know the students as it is a good introduction to STEM,” she said. “Building bridges is a fun way of getting introduced to the STEM concept and strengthening their skills required to think, manipulate and create an ‘engineering’ plan, a concept based on the task at hand.”

Each student was given free rein in designing and creating their bridge. Mrs. Shah said she talked to students about what a bridge is, what makes it strong, why we need bridges and why different geographic locations require different types of bridges. There were a lot of different discussions and then Mrs. Shah gave students instructions and the materials and asked them to build bridges the way that they liked.

“One of the main purposes of this activity was to introduce STEM/STEAM to the students,” she said. “To help them understand that thinking matters, planning, and designing are the most important elements before they start creating their models. It was great to see how students used their materials in such different ways for their creation.”

While some students folded their paper to create an accordion and tape another sheet around it, other students made their bridges hollow. Some bridges featured a pyramid shape on the sides.

“The students tried to be as innovative as possible,” she said. “There were some simpler bridges, but the students learned a lot from watching each other and participating in the process. There was a lot of camaraderie where the students rooted for each other as they tried out their bridges by putting weights on them to see how much they could withstand. Overall, it was a great first-week project.”

Once the bridges were completed, students enjoyed piling different things on top of their creations to see how much weight they could withstand.

This week, students will continue their study of bridges by using their original bridges as models as they create bridges using popsicle sticks, Mrs. Shah said. The students began building the bridges on September 10.