Optional projects going along with the 4th and 5th grader's unit on bridges have been distributed. While these are optional, I strongly encourage the students to opt to do one (more than one is fine also) of them. The items from which they are to choose follow.
- Construct a detailed scale model of a famous bridge. Be sure to include the scale used.
- Interview a person who designs bridges or has worked on the construction of bridges. Present both your questions and their answers. Add your opinion of their occupation.
- Choose several bridges. Provide pictures of each. Explain how each bridge is like you or represents you (or aspects of you). This can be done through a medium of your choice.
- Take the part of a talk show host and interview the designer of a famous bridge.
- Read Bridge to Terabithia and make a book report cube. The faces of your cube should cover the setting, plot, main characters, conflict involved, resolution, and your opinion of the book.
- Compare and contrast three famous bridges. Present your findings in a mode of your choice. Include visual(s), auditory, and written aspects in your presentation.
- Come up with the Top Fifteen __________ Bridges. Choose the category or categories if you are doing more than one top fifteen grouping. Do not choose a single quantifiable aspect such a length. Try for something more like “Most Beautiful” or “Biggest Waste of Money.” Include the criteria you used for your selections.
- Design and construct a game that teaches and/or requires knowledge of bridges. Make it as professional as you can with regard to quality. Be sure to include directions and high caliber packaging.
- “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” – Listen to and analyze this song. Your analysis type and way to present it may be of your own choosing. Also, tell what troubled waters you have had and what “bridge” helped you get over them.
- Construct examples of the three basic types of bridges plus at least one other type of bridge and provide a written explanation of where each type is best used.
- Watch the movie “Bridge on the River Kwi.” Present a review of the movie from the pro and con perspective. This may be done on video, as if on radio, or as a puppet show.
- Become a famous bridge and present your autobiography. Choose how you wish to present this information.
13. Make detailed scale drawings of at least five famous bridges of the world. Use the same scale for all of your choices so others might compare them more easily.
14. Photograph a variety of bridges in the Atlanta metro area. Put your discoveries together as a display or as part of a presentation of some sort. Be sure to identify the name and/or location of each bridge.
15. Write a research paper about a famous bridge or a famous bridge designer.
16. Choose at least three bridge disasters on which to report. You may choose how you wish to present your findings; it may be through a combination of different ways and/or mediums.
17. Write a poem, or series of poems, that gives the perspective of a plane flying over the bridge, a human crossing the bridge, a river passing under the bridge, and the bridge itself.
18. Construct an operational model of one type of movable bridge.
19. Other – Come up with a project of your own design. Be sure to obtain your teacher’s consent BEFORE starting to work on it.
These descriptions are purposely a bit vague; the students will use them as their starting off point and go as far as they wish. As a reminder, ALL ideas and ALL work are to be done be the students independently. Please allow them this wonderful opportunity to risk, work hard, and feel a sense of accomplishment in their own work.
Due Dates : 5th Grade: December 6, 2011
4th Grade: December 8, 2011
