Explore Bridges! ― With 25 Great Projects

Getting from one place to another sounds easy if you are on a straight piece of land, but what if you have to get over—or under—a body of water or a deep gorge? Build a bridge! Bridges are the great connectors. They allow us to travel the twists and turns, highs and lows, ins and out of every geographic feature in our world. Explore Bridges! With 25 Great Projects introduces readers ages 7 to 10 to the concepts and vocabulary of bridge construction through the lenses of history, science, engineering, math, and technology.

From the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco to the Tower Bridge in London, bridges are a huge part of our life. But how are these amazing structures built? What forces keep it standing? What might cause it to fall down? And who decides which type of bridge to use? In Explore Bridges!, readers discover how these extraordinary feats of engineering are created, and apply what they have learned to hands-on, critical-thinking activities that include building different types of bridges, such as truss, cantilever, and suspension bridges, out of different materials and modeling different types of supports. They examine the natural forces that affect structure selection and appearance, and also learn about the types of support required for each. Trivia, cartoon illustrations, links to online videos and other sources, and clear diagrams round out this book and make it fun and interesting for class discussions.

Following the guidelines set forth in the NGSS/NSTA engineering and design standards, teachers can feel comfortable using this book as a guide for targeted learning in their classrooms.

Jennifer is an award-winning author of more than 30 nonfiction and fiction books for children. Her books in the “How Things Work” series by The Child’s World were named to the 2012 Booklist’s Top 10 Books for Youth: Series Nonfiction. She is also the author of Explore Forces and Motion and Zoology: Cool Women Who Work With Animals from Nomad Press. Jennifer resides in Jacksonville, Florida, with her family and her two dogs.

Bryan Stone is a cartoonist and the illustrator of several books for Nomad Press including Explore Night Science!, Explore Flight!, Explore Rivers and Ponds!, Explore Rocks and Minerals!, Explore Electricity!, and Explore Honey Bees!. He lives in West Fairlee, Vermont.