Structural Engineer
Welcome to Week 5!
This week you are a structural engineer who has been asked by the department of transportation to provide materials that will educate the citizens in your region regarding bridge quality and safety through a community forum. Your goal is to provide an overview of the quality of bridges in your region. This will help people in the community understand more about the structural integrity of bridges over time and how safe they are on these bridges..
Overview
Introduction
The nation is greatly concerned about the quality of the bridges in the United States. This quality directly affects individual safety creating concern among citizens and government officials. Most state departments of transportation provide information regarding bridge quality.
Audience
Your audience will be a variety of citizen groups and local officials interested in the bridge quality within their region.
Situation
The nation is greatly concerned about the quality of the bridges in the United States. This quality directly affects individual safety creating concern among citizens and government officials. Most state departments of transportation provide information regarding bridge quality.
Step 1: Review
Before you pick your product, spend about 30 minutes today reviewing forces and the structures of a bridge. To the left you will find videos to support your learning. Below are some review questions to guide your note taking.
What are Newton's Laws?
What is tension?
What is compression?
What are 3 important things to consider when building a bridge?
What how does tension and compression connect to bridge building?
Which one of Newton's laws is applied in bridge building?
Step 2: Research & Choose a Product
Below are the three products you can choose to create. There is a description of each task and the rubric above it. In order to develop your product you will need to do some research to inform your design. Read through the articles and watch videos to learn more about bridge building and the materials used to make them. Feel free to look for additional resources to support your learning. If you need some guidance for your research, there are guiding questions after the resources.
Resources
Video: The Future of Earthquake Proof Buildings
Video: Bridge Engineering Basics
Article 1: Ensuring that when the ground starts shaking...
Article 2: To Survive a Quake...
Article 3: Crossing the Gap...
Article 4: Advancing Bridge Safety
Website: US Government Information on Earthquakes
Website: MA Department of Transportation Bridge Safety
Podcast
Research one of the Department of Transportation websites provided or your own state's Department of Transportation Website. Use your findings to take a position on whether or not your chosen state's bridges meet the minimum necessary safety requirements, or if they are in need of urgent repair. Create a 1-2 minute Podcast to be played on local radio that uses the information you found in your research and also considers how local and state politics factor into whether or not bridge reconstruction takes place in certain cases.
Photostory
Design a slide show that highlights several bridges from across the United States. Within each slide highlight features of the bridge that are related to its safety. For each feature provide a scientific/mathematical explanation for how that feature helps prevent the bridge from collapsing. Show how the loads are distributed through the bridge, so as to maximize its weight-bearing capacity
Scientific Drawing
Create a scale drawing of a local bridge using plan and profile views. Use static equations and free body diagrams to show the distribution and equilibrium of forces. Determine problem areas in which the bridge could potentially fail. With your drawing, provide technical and scientific information about the design materials of the local bridge. Evaluate the designed materials and how the molecular-level structure is important to the success of the bridge.
Step 3: Design & Create
Brainstorm Ideas
It's time to think about product development. You will begin with ideation, which is the start of the creative process. During the ideation phase, you will brainstorm with your group about all the potential ways you could approach this product. Remember, the more creative and innovative your ideas are at this stage, the better! Your group will need to check and make sure that each of your initial ideas are meeting the requirements related to the goal, audience and product description. What are the directions or criteria that need to be followed? Who is your audience and what will they need from this product?
Analyze & Decide
As you discuss the possibilities during your brainstorming, you will narrow the ideas down to those that seem like they would best solve the problem or address the challenge. Once you have narrowed down to two or three ideas, grab some paper and a pencil and make an outline or sketch a plan for each one. What will the product need to include? How will you best use the information that you found in your research to create it? What would the product look like based upon each idea?
After outlining your product ideas. Discuss with your group and decide on ONE that you would like to move forward with. When you have selected one idea, you will move on to the creation phase, keeping in mind that you may go through several rounds of creation and revision before you are ready to present.
Create & Revise
It is possible that while you are creating the first version of your product, you will develop more questions that need to be answered before you can continue. If so, you may need to do additional research. Reflect on how any new information affects your product and make revisions as needed.
Your group should also be looking at the rubric during the creation phase. Here, you can practice thinking critically and collaborating with your peers to understand what needs to be included in your product. Then, you should reflect on whether or not your initial work meets those criteria. If you realize that it does not, you may need to go back and make additional revisions.
As you work through the process of creating and revising your product, communication with your teacher and classmates will be very valuable. Asking for help and discussing your product with others can help you clarify whether or not your product meets the goal of the task and is appropriate for the audience.
Remember, creating this product is a fun opportunity to apply what you have learned about important topics in a more creative and independent way.
Step 4: Reflect
Congratulations - You finished! Now take some time to reflect on the process. Look at the questions below to guide your reflection.
What classroom content did you use to create your products and solve the issue/challenge?
What skills did you use (21st century skills) to work through the task and finish the project?
What problems did you encounter while you were working on this task? How did you solve them?
What did you learn were your greatest strengths? Your biggest areas for improvement?
What part of your work are you most proud of? What would you do differently next time? Why?