Straw Bridges

This week's challenge:

Using one box of straws and one roll of tape, build the strongest bridge that spans 18 inches and stands at least 2 inches off the table. You may not use other materials.

Good luck. When you send pictures, be sure to include information about how much weight your bridge would hold.

Week Six -- Super Solutions

Our first participant for this challenge, K, returned his entry by Sunday morning! He did an awesome job with his bridge holding 216 pennies and 50 quarters! Way to go, K!


Sadie opted for a suspension bridge of sorts using spaghetti and paper as her primary support. She dropped 57 quarters inside the structure before it collapsed. The second picture was taken just before that moment. Awesome work Sadie! Isn't it fun to see such a variety of solutions? It proves that there is not one right answer!



Here are four more completed bridges! Super job everyone! You should be proud of your work!

Maggie--44 quarters



Jacob--100 quarters



Katie--31 pennies and quarters


Ben--23 quarters (a little distracted because he kept wanting to nibble on the dried thin spaghetti)


Here's JediBoy with his 37-quarter bridge! Awesome job!


This was Taylor's first challenge and after a practice build that didn't work out, Taylor got her bridge to hold 60 pennies. It looked like so much fun that her Daddy and Mom decided to build one too! Fantastic solution Taylor!


Will, Zach, and Andy added scissors to the project, but all the other items were the same. Because they didn't have that much change lying around, they used a bit larger items to test the weight. All three of them did an awesome job!






Sam tried a few times. Then he decided to put the spaghetti in a square formation. He ended up putting 25 quarters on before it collapsed! Awesome work, Sam.


Audrey's bridge didn't quite span 9 inches, but it held 69 cents off the table! Great work Audrey!



Pennies kept falling off of Mary's bridge. They kept slipping off, so she built another contraption to test the bridge's strength.



Mary and Audrey are adding pennies to the cups hanging from Mary's bridge. The supports collapsed at 150 pennies.



Jaylene thought it was a little silly to build a bridge and have it stand alone. So we designed two “mountains” that would allow the bridge to have a genuine purpose, making sure that the land didn’t add to the strength of the bridge. She was determined to make it look like a suspension bridge so the spoons were used for strength and the spaghetti for decoration. Once the bridge was completed, she decided that Pirate Hello Kitty would be using the bridge to carry her treasure to it’s hiding spot. It held 110 multinational coins! Awesome work Jaylene!


H and T got 103 quarters but this picture only shows about 42. They were so excited that they forgot to keep taking pictures! They used plastic spoons and broke off the spoon part on both. Then they made a sandwich that had a folded piece of paper with spaghetti broken and running the width in the center. They placed the spoon parts at the end of the spaghetti going width wise. Then they placed the handles of the spoons on either of the center going length wise. Then they wrapped it in a second piece of paper. It was pretty sturdy. It may have held more weight like a book if the weight was distributed more evenly but the quarters were tippy. Great work H and T!


Noach built a bridge that held 161 pennies. Since quarters weighed 5.7g and pennies 2.5g, this converted to 70.6 quarters. A little math with construction! Awesome work Noach!


The Peterson girls did a fantastic job with their bridge! They came up with a great solution to the tippy cup problem! Check it out:



Chip came up with a different way of doing things. First he used Duct Tape! His paper was card stock. His "bridge" of paper was taped to the cups that hung over the backs of two chairs. Thus, a real bridge. He ended up with 245 coins all together with a grand total of $6.75.



Dill taped the spoons to the card stock and then to the cup using scotch tape. He put the spaghetti on the paper and started stacking. He ended up with 370 coins all together.



Sweet also used card stock and split her tape by using 7.5" of scotch tape and 7.5" of duct tape. She taped her paper on the cups and put the spaghetti on top of the paper. She then used the duct tape to make supports in the middle of the paper with the spoons. She got 125 coins.

Week Six - Bridges

Put the following out on a table: 2 cups, 2 spoons (plastic or real), 6 sticks of spaghetti, 15 inches of tape, two 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper, a measuring tape and lots of quarters or pennies(the measuring tape and quarters/pennies cannot be used in the solution). Using the cups as the ends, tell your students to build a bridge that spans 9 inches and will hold as much weight as possible. When the bridge is complete, measure its strength by placing quarters/pennies on it (or anything else you want). Count how many quarters the bridge holds. As always, we look forward to your pictures and your results. All participants will be entered in our October giveaway drawing.

To learn more about bridges, go here.