CS92: bridges!

CS92: Bridges!
in conjuction with the Lincoln School

Erin Carey,
Diana Chien,
Jason Li

Background information:
(provided by Professor Blumberg)

School : The Lincoln School
Teachers : Connie Bryan and Betsy Hunt
Audience : Third graders

Project : In the Spring term, third graders at Lincoln study basic bridge design and construction. They learn about three main bridge types; beam, arch and suspension. They conduct simple experiments in the classroom to illustrate tension and compression, strength of different shapes such as triangles and circles, and learn vocabulary to identify bridge parts. They also learn about famous bridges, such as the Pont du Gard, the Rialto, and the Brooklyn Bridge. Unfortunately, there is little on the internet that is appropriate for this age group (9 year-olds). An interactive program, perhaps game-oriented, in which students could design bridges and test them against loads or sites is what the teachers would like. Maps to locate famous bridges and information about them would help make the material real. They envision the program reinforcing classroom instruction as well as engaging students in a different modality for learning. Possible tools include Director, Authorware and HTML/Java.

Comments : This project is a challenging gem, I think, and might build both on the elementary school architecture program we built for Claudia Pietros years ago ( Building Blast! ) as well as the Materials Science program we built for Nancy Nowack two years ago ( Splash! ).

Original proposal:
(provided by an original feedback form)

name: Connie Bryan and Betsy Hunt
school: Lincoln School

phone: 331-9696 ext. 3109
times: anytime at cbryan@lincolnschool.org or by phone

subject: bridge design and construction
grade: Third Grade
studentnum: 18
meetingtime: flexible

textbooks: trade book on bridges , teacher created experiments and materials
computers: Mac - 16 available

project topic:
Spring term, third graders study basic bridge design and construction. They learn about three main bridge types; beam, arch and suspension. They conduct simple experiments in the classroom to illustrate tension and compression, strength of different shapes such as triangles and circles, and learn vocabulary to identify bridge parts. Students learn about famous bridges, such as the Pont du Gard, the Rialto, and the Brooklyn Bridge.

There is little on the internet that is appropriate for this age group (9 yr.old). There is a Nova PBS site which shows landscapes that are matched with appropriate bridge types but the content is overly detailed and too lengthy for students of this age.

Games and/or interactive projects where students could design bridges and test them against loads or sites would be fun. Maps to locate famous bridges and information about them would help make the material real.

We see the program reinforcing classroom instuction as well as engaging students in a different modality for learning.

Revised proposal:
(rewritten after further communication)

name: Connie Bryan and Betsy Hunt
school: Lincoln School

subject: bridge design and construction
grade: Third Grade
studentnum: 18

textbooks: trade book, coloring book, grade3-level books, teacher-created experiments and materials
computers: iMacs - 16 situated in a computer room

background:
Connie Bryan is a third grade teacher at the Lincoln School, a K12 all-girls school. Betsy Hunt is the computer tech/teacher for the Lower School.

Late in the spring term (roundabout May), third graders study basic bridge design and construction. They learn about three main bridge types; beam, arch and suspension. They conduct simple experiments in the classroom to illustrate tension and compression, strength of different shapes such as triangles and circles, and learn vocabulary to identify bridge parts. Students learn about famous bridges, such as the Pont du Gard, the Rialto, and the Brooklyn Bridge.

technology:
There is a computer lab next door where there are iMacs for students, an eMac on one end and the teacher's computer is in the corner. The children are usually trained to use computers by first watching a video on a television that is also available in the lab.

The children possess basic computer literacy. Their favorite program is KidPix (a flashier and more powerful Paint), but they can also use MathBlaster, Hyperstudio Stacks (simpler version of Hypercard), and Apple Works. They can navigate websites using a browser, although they sometimes get lost if they cannot go 'back' or if mutiple windows are open.

The elements of the programs that caught the children's attention were:

a mission (either own or program)
colors
characters
animations
the ability to create
fun facts

According to Mrs Bryan, the girls are chatty and will probably only focus on the assignment at hand for roughly 20 minutes.

resources:
Apart from the aforementioned programs, the school has recently purchased two programs. One involves the educational programming language LOGO in conjunction with basic graphics capabilities. However, this is gauged to be at fourth-grade level. The other program is essentially an on-screen version of building blocks. The program comes with a manual in which there is a particularly interesting section detailing how fantasy bridges can be built using the program. This program does not have the effects of gravity built-in, but it was noted that the basic 3d geometry of the program was already straining system resources.

what we do:
Mrs Bryan was hoping that we could do one of the following:

reinforce the bridge vocabulary visually
reinforce the concept of load-bearing
map famous bridges around the world
track the progression of bridges through time

As a side note, both the teachers and the students were very fond of simple, lushly-illustrated websites that offered the basic interaction of asking/answering questions.

We are thinking of doing the following:

A map with various pinpoints of famous bridges
A logical progression of bridges through time
Testing a load on certain famous bridges
Vocabulary lessons with numbered parts on a picture
Fit the bridge to the picture/scenario
Integrate fun facts and jokes
Integrate interesting characters and animations

We are looking to combine the bulk of these ideas into one program, however, we must be careful of not over complicating things as this may confuse third-graders.