Improving Bridge Design: STEM Road Map for Middle School, Grade 8

What if you could challenge your eighth graders to strengthen the nation’s infrastructure by designing bridges that last longer? Improving Bridge Design helps meet that challenge by having students develop a decision model that can be used by their local department of transportation to ensure that future bridges are sustainable and appropriate for the community in which they are built. Along the way, students will discover types and parts of bridges and construct scale models, research and compare minerals and rocks involved in bridge building, and investigate how much bridges cost and what could make them more sustainable. Throughout the module, students will use mathematics, science, English language arts, and social studies to study one of the country’s most urgent needs.