K-12 Engineering Education Standards: - International Technology ...

There is more than one way to teach bridge building,
especially with students at the freshman level. They can
learn to build bridges without the mathematical analysis;
however, they would just be building and crushing bridges
without really understanding why their bridge failed.
The advantage of integrating these math concepts into
this exercise allows them to stop the bridge at the first
point of failure rather than crushing the bridge. Using the
mathematical equations that were derived for each member,
students can use analysis to determine which members
are failing, whether those members are in compression
or tension, and, if the bridge was pulling apart or pushing
together when it failed.
This bridge activity is meant to enhance the student’s ability
to analyze a variety of projects in technology education
classrooms. Because each student’s bridge will be slightly
different, they will have many values to compare based
on the bridge they chose to build and their method of
construction.
Reference
Hibbeler, R.C. (2004). Engineering mechanics: Statics and
dynamics. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Ahmed L. Gathing is a graduate student
at the The University of Georgia in Athens,
GA. He can be reached via email at
gathing@gmail.com.
This is a refereed article.
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Experimental Wind Turbine
Students have the opportunity to test
rotor and blade designs. Options include a
motor or generator gearbox; assembled or as kits.
Vary the rotor sweep, blade size and blade shape to
change the electrical output. Test the rotors output
with the included multimeter or see how many LED’s
the turbine will light. Fold a cardstock model house
and create an LED circuit to plug into the wind turbine.
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34 • Technology and Engineering Teacher • February 2011