The Strength of a well-designed Balsa Wood Truss Bridge

Daniel Anker-Scherer, Evie Kelly-Mavretic, Raine Montgomery-Vielmo

Washington Latin Public Charter School
5200 2nd St NW Washington, DC 20011

Background Design process: Data

The first course domain that we used for this
Our bridge was 25.6 lbs, it was able to hold
project was communicating within a scientific
11 pounds, and when it collapsed, it
framework, by making this poster to analyze and
share our results. Secondly, we developed and partially snapped without fully breaking.
used models when we designed and Our strength to weight ratio was 0.46.
workshopped the bridge. Lastly, we used the
problem solving process after running into
difficulties during the construction for the bridge. Conclusion
We chose to build a bridge that aimed to hold at
● We failed to hold 15 pounds, but
least 8 pounds. A photo from Garrett’s Bridges
was our inspiration for the base of the bridge2. succeeded in holding 8 pounds. Thus,
we succeeded in our objective, but not
Research Objective by much.
● Our initial design was improperly
Figure 1: Initial design implemented, and as such we had to
Figure 2: Building the
Our objective was to build a bridge that would edit it with little time.
base
hold at least 8 pounds. ● We didn’t have any diagonal supports,
and that likely impacted our success.
Materials Regardless, our design was effective
● Balsa wood
enough to hold more than 10 pounds,
● Wood glue meaning that we achieved a “B”.
● X-Acto knives ● Furthermore, the design only partially
● Ruler snapped, meaning that it could
● Wax paper theoretically be fixed and re-used with
● Pencils minimal effort.

Revisions
After we had built most of our Acknowledgements/ References:
bridge, we realized that our
sizing for the base of our bridge A Pitsco Education video and Garrett’s
was bigger than what was Bridges is where we got some of our
allowed. Knowing the correct inspiration from.
measurements, we fixed our 1. Pitsco Education: Dr. Zoon: Bridge Building
bridge to meet the requirements. Figure 3: Fixing our Figure 4: Finished 2. Garrett’s Bridges: balsa/basswood –
measurement errors bridge Garrett's Bridges
 Goals:
● Basic, rough draft by Monday March 11 (at least something)
○ Daniel does Data, Conclusion, Materials, Research Objective
○ Evelyn does Design, Design process
○ Raine does Background, Acknowledgements/References

● Made better by Friday March 15

○ Everyone works on it.
● Finish by Friday March 22