Bridges: The Art and Science for Creating Community Connections

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 08.04.02

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Introduction
  2. Objectives
  3. Strategies
  4. Appendix 1
  5. Appendix 2
  6. Appendix 3
  7. Appendix 4-Bridge Building Project

Building Bridges in Earthquake Country: From the Past to the Present

Lisa A. Ernst

Published September 2008

Tools for this Unit:

Strategies

When teaching Earth Science in California, we have an opportunity to educate student''s on earthquakes in the Bay Area. This enables the students the opportunity to be proactive and demonstrate their knowledge of the content in relationship of being prepared to survive an earthquake. What I have found over the years, it''s the reverse, many of my students as well as their families are complacent in earthquake preparedness. One such area that is extremely disturbing, is when a family purchases a home in San Francisco, knowing the cost of a home is astronomical; many families either do not have the funding, or feel that they do not want to spend the money to retrofit their homes. When we study earthquakes, we use an activity (FEMA) where we walk the neighborhood and identify key structural components outside of a structure that could lead to death, or complete destruction. As an extension to this lab, the students use a specific lab sheet (FEMA) where they have a place to illustrate their dwellings, and identify key structural elements that could be dangerous to their families as well as their neighbors. From this activity the students do a pair-share, about what they have learned about their dwellings, and discuss, and identify some solutions for their concerns. Many geologists and seismologists have said, ""Earthquakes do not kill people, but buildings do."" At this point, with the neighbor next to them, the students take their knowledge about earthquakes and design a structure using toothpicks and mini marshmallows. Then the students place their structure on top of a shake table. (Raft) The students simulate an earthquake; along with differentiating between the movements of various faults in the Bay Area. This would enable the students to have the opportunity to see hands on application in process.

After this event, the students within their larger groups would brainstorm and design a poster. This poster would demonstrate the student''s ability to analyze and respond to the following questions; structurally what they have learned? What could you have done differently? What were the strengths and weakness of your building? Along with responding to these questions, the students would generate new vocabulary as well as include a diagram that would be an overview of the student''s discussion in their group. At this point, the students would display their posters in the classroom, and then each student receives a set of yellow post-its, as well as blue post-its. With these post-its and without talking, the students walk around the classroom looking at the posters, as they look, the student''s generate questions on the blue post-its and place the blue post-its on the posters. On the yellow post-its, they would generate positive suggestions about the posters. The students then place the yellow post-its on the posters. When the students have completed their gallery walk, the students would respond to the questions that their peers have generated. But before any of the above activities or labs is done, we would have spent an extensive time going over the key concepts in studying Earthquakes.

Reflecting on what we have done previously in studying and teaching earthquakes, through the readings, and the seminars at Yale, that my unit called ""Bridge Building in Earthquake Country: From the Past to the Present: is quite applicable. While teaching 6th grade at Alice Fong Yu, teaching in a block schedule, there is a unique opportunity to teach this curriculum. Along with the scheduling, I teach three areas of concentration; which include Earth Science, Language Arts, as well Ancient History. After great thought and discussion, the first step into the process is how to disseminate all the new content on bridges that I have learned from the readings, research and seminars that were presented by Martin Genre, our professor, would be through a power point presentation. The power point presentation would demonstrate to the students that instruction and the new knowledge could be interactive.

As the research continued, other fellows in my seminar suggested, to add the connection of the local bridges in the Bay Area that include the following: Golden Gate Bridge, Richmond-San Rafael, Carquinez, Dumbarton, San Mateo, and the Bay Bridge. This connection would include the following areas of concentration from the visuals, history, design, and structure makeup of the bridge. Along with the local interests, select bridges that can be identified structurally in Ancient History. Last but not least, what is essential to tie in, is the impact a bridge can have on a city or country economically as well as culturally when a natural disaster, like an earthquake occurs. Students as well as adults tend to not look at these factors, and the students miss the opportunity to study how a bridge can impact a region.

The bridge building could either be an extension after building structures, or a centerpiece of structural design in Earthquake Country. The process of building a bridge enables the students the opportunity to put to work their knowledge of the components of an earthquake, along with the structural designs that encompass architecture and engineering of a bridge, as well the historical earthquake history of the bay area. The bridges in Bay Area represent not just transportation, but the link to economics as well as the cultural diversity of our great city.

Teaching this unit, ""Building Bridges in Earthquake Country: Past to the Present"", gives the educator the flexibility and the opportunity to use various teaching strategies. Depending on the content they teach, as well as the time they have allotted in a school calendar, the whole unit or just a portion could be presented. In the organizational process of this unit, the unit would be integrated into the Earth Science curriculum, with the ability to tie in the other areas of concentration. The concepts and terms in Appendix 1 are essential in making this unit applicable to the student. This unit could be approximately a ten-day lesson plan, which will motivate and hopefully inspire the next generation of engineers. While reflecting on the seminars, literature, and the application, Physical Science could be easily integrated into the unit. Within this unit there is the flexibility of doing whole group, pair share, small group or to have stations situated around the classroom. Reflecting on one''s own classroom management, this is essential part of your decision making process of initiating this unit on Bridges. Besides classroom management, the other concern would be the cost of the items as well as where to locate these items for the labs and activities. Keeping that in mind, a lot of thought and surveying costs were placed in the process of these activities and labs. One would say ""Target"", ""Wal-Mart"", or the ""Dollar Store"" as your choice of shopping. Another area of concern will be in the meeting the needs for special need children as well as English language learners. The lessons address through the process of instruction, instructional activities, as well as labs to meet their needs. The last area of concern lies with the availability of technology. In the unit there are four areas where computers will be used; in the application of building a bridge, researching, designing, simulating, and in teacher presentations. If the teacher does not have a computer, a computer lab, or computers in the classroom they will have difficulty in completing the whole unit.

Yet again I found myself reflecting on my Special Need Students, Gifted, as well as the English Language Learners when developing the unit on Bridge Building in Earthquake Country: From the Past to the Present. In order for this unit to be successful there is a need to integrate specific strategies to address the language learners and the special need student in the areas of writing and vocabulary. A ""Quick Write"", would help identify the student''s background knowledge on bridges as well as identifying the key terms and vocabulary that will be essential for the students to be successful. After introducing the key terms and vocabulary through activities, labs, and research, I have put together a ""Building Bridges Vocabulary Jigsaw"". This vocabulary activity will help the student''s with spelling, pronunciation, as well in definition of the terms. But when you look at these Language Arts activities, as an educator they are just great teaching strategies. Keeping that in mind, all the students will benefit.

Reflecting on station driven curriculum, there are factors that need to be addressed. The first of course is in classroom management. When looking at this aspect, one needs to be honest with looking at you as the facilitator. Do you have a structure? What are your expectations? There is structure in everything. The second step would be in looking at your class. Honestly, there are times no matter how the teacher tries to train the students to work independent, but with movement, it just does not work. Another area of concern could deal with the time frame of your curriculum. As a teacher that has a block schedule, I found that using station driven activities and labs have been successful for the students. This teaching strategy fosters independence, leadership as well as gives more flexibility to interact with the students.

Lessons 1-Stations A-G

After addressing the Language Arts in this curriculum, my focus turned to the Arts, Earth Science, as well as Ancient History in the Bridge Building Stations. At Station-A, the students will be introduced to the beam. There will be a laminated piece of cardstock. The cardstock will contain the objectives and the directions of the activities that the students will be completing at this station. There will be a comprehensible definition of the term. The activities will encompass the arts, earth science, as well as ancient history of the beam. At Station-B, the students will be introduced to the arch. There will be a laminated piece of cardstock. This cardstock will contains the objectives, and the directions of the activities that the students will be completing at this station. There will be a comprehensible definition of the term. Once again, the activities will encompass the arts, earth science, as well as ancient history. At Station-C, the students will be introduced to a variety of websites that are aligned to technology and bridge building. There will be a laminated piece of cardstock. The cardstock will contain the objectives, as well as the directions of what is expected and required at this station. The students will have a scavenger hunt activity regarding the various websites that encompass engineering as well as bridges. At Station-D, the students will be introduced to materials. There will be a laminated piece of cardstock. The cardstock will contain the objectives, as well as the directions of the activities that the students will be completing in this lesson. At this station, the students will be analyzing various materials in relationship to building bridges. A data sheet will be provided in order to interpret their data. At Station-E, the students will be introduced to Suspension. There will be a laminated piece of cardstock. The cardstock will contain the directions, the objectives as well as the lesson. There will be a comprehensible definition of the term. Once again, the activities will encompass, the arts, earth science, as well as ancient history. At Station-F, the students will be introduced to Cantilever. There will be a laminated piece of cardstock. The cardstock will contain the directions of the activity or lab, as well as the objectives of this station, as well as the lesson. There will be a comprehensible definition of the term. The activities will encompass, the arts, earth science, as well as ancient history. At Station-G, the students will be introduced to Local Bridges. The following bridges will be included at this station: Golden Gate, Bay Bridge, Richmond-San Rafael, Carquinez, Dumbarton, and the San Mateo Bridge. There will be a laminated piece of cardstock. The cardstock will contain the directions, the objectives of the station, as well as the lesson. The station will include the history, and the structural design of each bridge. When the students have completed these stations they are on the first step of becoming an engineer of bridges.

Lesson 2-Project Based

The next step in the process of becoming an engineer is in the project-based activity-building a bridge. The students will be given directions as well as a rubric to this activity. The students will team up with a fellow student. As the student''s read their directions to the project-based activity (Appendix-4), they will identify some strict guidelines. One, they are given money to purchase their materials. The materials include the following; graph paper for their design, a ruler, clay, popsicle sticks, etc. They are also given an expense sheet to keep their data on how much they used of the materials as well as the cost. Second, they have to get the city planner to sign off on the structural design of the bridge. Keep in mind, in the directions, they are told how tall and how wide their bridge can be, if it will service pedestrians, vehicles, or trains as well as where it is going to be located. The city engineer is the teacher. Once everyone has been signed off, the students can begin building. Using a watch, in the directions, the students are to keep time on how long it took to build their bridge. The city planner (the teacher) calculates time. If they go over the time allotment, the builders are charged. As they are charged, for using too many pieces, or too less of structural pieces. When this process is complete, the students will share what type of bridge they built with their fellow classmates. The test will be placing the bridge structure on top of the shake table. (Raft) As we did in the lab for building a structure, we will simulate an earthquake. This process will be timed in relationship to various earthquakes that have taken place in the bay area. The students will be able to identify the bridges that could withstand an earthquake, and discuss various solutions to the problems. While this lab gives simplicity of what will happen, it cannot accurately generate a magnitude earthquake. That aspect of this lab has always concerned me.

Lesson 3-Technology Based

But while doing my research I found the website called Bridge to Classroom: Engineering for Earthquakes. This website not only gives the students the opportunity to build the bridge, but gives them a variety of choices with explanations. Along with the various structures, the student can select various ways to support the structure. After the student selects the bridge design with support, he or she can print a copy of the structure. The next step is to choose either the San Andreas Earthquake or the Hayward Earthquake. Then select the magnitude of the earthquake. The website will actually simulate the earthquake with the magnitude. When the earthquake is complete, it will show the structural flaws as well as give you reasons for the destruction. The student will have the opportunity to print out a visual of what happened to their bridge design. Until now I have never found a real time interactive website where you can put in a bridge design as well as the magnitude of an earthquake. The feedback that the students receive is quite essential for the process of understanding how to build and live in earthquake country. The activity gives the students the opportunity to compare and contrast the data that they have collected. The students will use the data in the evaluation Lesson-5 using a poster presentation to fellow students.

Lesson 4- Project Based

The impact activity will demonstrate the ability to role play as a decision maker as well as involve the students'' ability to process the content, the research, and in the application of Bridge Building in the Bay Area. Presently there is a new Bay Bridge being built, but prior to the build, there was much controversy. There was a power struggle between to the two city Mayors of Oakland as well as San Francisco. The concerns lied with the cost of the bridge; design, the impact on transportation, as well as how it was going to affect Treasure Island.

In order for students to make the connection to the concerns and issues in building the bridge, the teacher will need to introduce a ""debate"". In Language Arts as well as in Social Studies, this teaching strategy is widely used. The teacher will give the students an example, Should students have the ability to purchase a soda on campus? The teacher will give each child the question in a ""Quick Write."" The students will generate the pros as well as the cons of purchasing soda on campus. This activity will lead to two students the teacher has selected to share the positive and negative of this idea through a debate. Then the teacher would have the students to take a vote on whether there should be the ability to purchase soda on campus.

After doing this basic activity, the teacher will move the students to past concerns as well as issues of the new Bay Bridge. In order to make the connection, each student will select a role. The roles relate to the government, concerned citizens, individuals that are responsible in building the bridge. I have designed cards, which are made out of cardstock, with the role of the individual, as well as a small description of that role. The following roles include; the citizens of San Francisco, citizens of Oakland, the Mayor of San Francisco, the Mayor of Oakland, an advisor from the EPA, an Archeologist, a Contractor, an Iron worker, a member of the Sierra Club, a Design Engineer, and a Safety Manager.

Each student will randomly select a role. The guidelines for this activity include that each student will use the basic information, then research information they will need for their role and decide how they would present the information of building the Bay Bridge. The individuals that were selected, as concerned citizens will first work individually then they form a group to share their ideas. As the teacher, I will participate as a TV anchor that is going to moderate the debate.

There will be a long table established in the front of the classroom, for the individual role players to sit. The setup at the table will include name cards with the roles that the students are playing. The concerned citizens will sit in the audience. Let the debate begin.

As with any debate on a public item of this magnitude, the final act will be that the students exercise their right to vote. This vote will be to either build the bridge or not build the bridge. This activity will give the student opportunity to generate and research the political process, as well as to experience oral presentations as objectives to be achieved.

Lesson 5-Evaluation

The final activity will be the students designing a poster that summarizes what the students have learned from Building Bridges in Earthquake Country: From the Past to the Present. First, there will be no more than six students in each group. Each student will select one colored marker to use on the poster. The students will be given an activity sheet, which will include a variety of questions that will guide the students in summarization of this unit. As a group, the students will begin to answer the questions and include illustrations in a rough draft format.

One of the questions addresses an illustration. The illustration will be taken from one of the structural bridges that were built among the team members. The students will label the illustration. The second question addresses vocabulary. The group will select five new terms that they would like to place on the poster. Along with the selection, the students will summarize definitions to go along with the vocabulary. The third question will reflect the history of a Bay Bridges. This question will relate to the process of building as well as the materials that were used in a local bridge. The fourth question will demonstrate questions that the students still have in regards to bridges. The group should list on the poster at least three new questions, but no more than five questions. The fifth question is taken directly from the data collected from the technology-based activity. The group will share their data, and add a diagram that summarizes their data. The last question is a three to five sentences that summarize the unit on Building Bridges in Earthquake Country: From the Past to the Present.

The students will place the posters around the classroom. Each student will be given a blue post-it and a yellow post-it. With these post-its and without talking, the students walk around the classroom looking at the posters, as they look, the student''s generate questions on the blue post-its and place the blue post-its on the posters. On the yellow post-its, they would generate positive suggestions about the poster. When the students have completed their gallery walk, the students will then respond to the questions that their peers have generated.

In this culminating activity I would give each student a certificate that states that they have demonstrated through labs, activities, and role-playing as decision makers, are now an engineer that can build a bridge to withstand the Big One. Now when I ask my students the following questions: Why are the local bridges built that way? What type of bridge did you cross over? They will be able to respond and identify, as well as being able to reflect how living in Earthquake Country can affect the community one resides in. '

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