Carroll Education Foundation's Grant Recipients and Sponsors 2009

The academic content embedded in "Building Bridges: Real Learning for the Science and Technology Heroes of Tomorrow" includes physics, engineering, math, writing, research and scientific observation skills. The activities in the unit will enable students to experience the excitement of contemporary science and technology, and better understand what engineering means, as well as encourage teamwork and structural experimentation. Students will learn how bridge engineering has changed throughout history and why bridges are economically and socially important. They will research and compare famous bridges and construct the seven types of bridges (arch, beam, truss, cable-stayed, cantilever, bascule and suspension bridges). Finally, the students will take a real problem, featuring a scenario that requires the construction of a bridge, and determine the type of bridge that would be best suited to solve the problem. Students who embrace and build on their skills and knowledge in these areas will have a head start in becoming the science and technology heroes of tomorrow.