Grade 7 students recently worked to design and build bridges constructed primarily of dry strands of spaghetti or fettucine noodles.
Before beginning the design process, the students learned about different types of bridges. They also had to consider how many noodles they would need for the shape of the structure, as well as which materials would work best to hold the structure together.
Nearly “im‘pasta’ble” to destroy!
After the building process was complete, it was time to test the strength of their pasta bridges. With assistance from technology teacher Matt Saucier, the seventh-graders placed their bridges between two desks about a foot apart.
They then attached an empty bucket with a fish weight scale to the bridge span and slowly poured water into the bucket to discover how much weight the structure could withstand before collapsing.
The strongest bridge was able to hold 15 pounds, followed next by 9 pounds!
