Skip to content

Woodlawn School

Donate

Woodlawn School

STEAMfest
  • About 
    • Mission
    • History
    • Sponsors
    • News & Blog
    • Press
  • Get Involved 
    • Volunteer
    • Purchase T-Shirt
    • Donate
    • Online Creator
  • Live 
    • 2022
    • Booth Sponsor
  • Virtual 
    • Virtual Home
    • Activities
    • Register For Virtual
    • Explorer Login
    • MySTEAMfest
    • Creators 
      • Get Started
      • Register
      • Creator’s Guide
  • Contact
STEAMfest
Menu
Menu Close
  • About 
    • Mission
    • History
    • Sponsors
    • News & Blog
    • Press
  • Get Involved 
    • Volunteer
    • Purchase T-Shirt
    • Donate
    • Online Creator
  • Live 
    • 2022
    • Booth Sponsor
  • Virtual 
    • Virtual Home
    • Activities
    • Register For Virtual
    • Explorer Login
    • MySTEAMfest
    • Creators 
      • Get Started
      • Register
      • Creator’s Guide
  • Contact
Donate

STEAMfest Login

Lost your password?

Not Registered? Sign up

Sign Up

  • The password should be at least twelve characters long. To make it stronger, use upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols like ! " ? $ % ^ & )

Already registered? Signin

Spaghetti Bridges

Build and test a spaghetti bridge

Learn engineering principles while building a bridge from spaghetti.

Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on pinterest
Share on email
Share on print

The brief

Construct a free standing bridge out of spaghetti, strong enough to support a 1/2lb bag of sugar or other weight.

The method

Think about bracing strands together for strength. Some shapes are better at absorbing loads – triangles are particularly strong. Rubber bands make for good junctions.

The process

  1. Watch the video above.
  2. Check out the “challenge card” in the download section. It has suggestions and pictures of different bridge types.
  3. Optionally checkout what other builders did for the JDFChallenge on Twitter and Facebook.
  4. Get busy and build your own bridge!
  5. Record results and a picture in your journal.

Top tip

Be patient. Through trial and error, you’ll become proficient at working with spaghetti.

Journal Questions
  1. How did you “bundle” the spaghetti to make it stronger?
  2. What shapes worked best?
  3. What did not work very well?
  4. If you were to try again what would you do differently?

Earn badges and qualify for prize drawing by registering and answering journal questions. It's fun and easy!

REGISTER
LOGIN

 

MySTEAMfest

Please Register and Login to select this activity. 

REGISTER
LOGIN

Topics

Engineering
Grade Level
4-5
6-8

Creator

James Dyson Foundation
ENGINEERING THE FUTURE

Curator

STEAMfest

STEAMfest

Imagine, Discover, Explore

Materials

  • Spaghetti
  • Small rubber bands or bag ties
  • Tape
  • 1/2lb bag of sugar or other weight

Downloads

Spaghetti_Bridge

Related Activities

Loading...
James-Dyson-Foundation-YouTube_balloon_car
Balloon Car Race
Build and race a balloon-powered car
Loading...
James-Dyson-Foundation-YouTube_cardboard_chair
Cardboard Chair
Can you build a chair from cardboard?
Loading...
James-Dyson-Foundation-YouTube_Marble_Run
Marble Run
Build a marble run lasting 60 seconds!
  • Contact Us
  • STEAMfest Explorer Login
  • Creator Login
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2022 STEAMfest – Woodlawn School

  Photography by: Georgina Emily Photography

  • steamfest@woodlawnschool.org