Teachers often ask students to construct bridges to illustrate the natural connection between math and science and their applications to the real world. Two Iowa State professors want to add engineering to that equation so students at all levels can understand how math, science, and engineering are interconnected.

Loren Zachary, assistant engineering dean, and Janet Sharp, associate professor of education, received nearly $1 million from the National Science Foundation to help Iowa math and science teachers teach engineering principles involved in designing a bridge.
The grant also supports the introduction of entomology, botany, and another engineering course, Mobile Robots for High School Teachers, into the curriculum of elementary and secondary education majors at Iowa State.

Six elementary, middle, and high school teachers and one elementary education major attended the experimental summer class, with about 30 teachers anticipated next year. During the five-day session, they learned about engineering principles that affect bridge design, such as elasticity, compression, tension, stress, strain, and beam buckling. Then they conducted experiments to explain these principles to their students, who could then apply that knowledge to designing a bridge.Dorothy Hall, an elementary teacher in Des Moines, said she decided her students could study elasticity by comparing different food products. “I’ll use licorice sticks, marshmallows, cooked pasta, and other foods,” she said. “The students can measure how far the food product stretched and what was the breaking point. My students won’t be able to do the fancy calculations, but they are capable of ranking the elasticity of each item.”

Hall cannot wait to try these experiments in her class. “I believe that if students make connections to what they are learning and how to apply it in real life, it will keep them motivated and interested. These students aren’t going to just build a bridge, they are going to see all the hard work that goes into designing a bridge and see the relevance of elasticity and breaking points.”