Building Bridges

We had a very interesting talk today about bridges.
We tried to name the three main bridges in Galway City Centre.
They are:
O'Brien's Bridge, The Salmon Weir Bridge and the Wolf Tone Bridge.

We drew a picture of all the different types of bridges we could think of, and we named all the geographical features that a bridge can cross over (river, stream, railway, road, valley)

Next we had a look at a really interesting book about bridges.

We used sheets of paper which we folded to see what kind of bridge is the strongest.

We used maths units as pedestrians and we counted how many pedestrians could walk on a bridge without the bridge collapsing.

We noticed that bridges with triangles or arches in them seem to be very strong.

Next came the really fun part........

We designed and made our own bridges.

We used log house blocks, domino blocks, lego, and magnetix pieces to make the bridges.

Some of us tested more kinds of paper bridges.

It would be interesting to be an engineer and to design real bridges.

We also went on a walk in Renmore to see what kinds of bridges are nearby, and to look at shapes in our environment:

Can you figure out where this bridge is?
That's right, it is on Ballyloughane Road.

We had a good look at the different shapes we could see (triangles, diamonds, rectangles, semi-ciricle, circles, cylinders and cuboids).  Can you spot each of them in these pictures?

We looked at various materials around us, and we had a good look at the shapes and materials in the bridge and its surroundings.

This is a railway bridge.  The railway line runs on top of the bridge and cars and pedestrians pass underneath.

We also found a small bridge with a little tunnel.  We think this is to allow animals and water to pass safely under the railway.  We were horrified to see all the litter that has collected there.

We loved the circular pump and had fun turning it clockwise and anti-clockwise.

The houses nearby are so interesting.. We found bungalows, two story and three story houses.  We saw detached, semi-detached and terraced houses.  We even saw a thatched cottage!

We also saw some really interesting shaped windows (pentagon and semi-circular).

It is so great to go to school in Renmore.  It is such an interesting place to live!