Y4 Bridge Engineers

Lesson: Design and technology

Class: Year 4 Year: 2023 - 2024

The Y4 children have thouroughly enjoyed the Spring topic of Bridges.

We started by examining different types of bridges and used wooden blocks and cards to make prototypes.

Sticky knowledge

There are three types of truss commonly used in bridge design: Lattice truss, Warren truss, Pratt truss.
These are the main bridge designs: beam, truss, arch, suspension, combination bridge.

We found out about the names for the different parts of the bridges and where and how they are strengthened.

Compression Force is the application of power, pressure, or exertion against an object that causes it to become squeezed, squashed, or compacted.
Gravity acts on beams, deck and pillars of bridges, generating compression forces.

We learnt about two engineers who have excellent examples of bridge design.

5.To know Thomas Telford was a Scottish civil engineer who built canals, roads and bridges. Zaha Hadid was a British female engineer responsible for interesting

bridge designs.

In groups, we designed a specific type of bridge and heard how to use tools safely.

In groups, the children used materials and tools (a saw, vice, glue gun) to create these amazing bridges.

Finally, the children evaluated their bridge- it's design, structure, appearance and purpose.

The bridges are proudly on display on our corridor. All the bridges were sturdy and toys cars could pass smoothly across the bridge deck.