This new educational product we are promoting teaches students how to design and assemble balsa wood bridges. The materials needed, guidelines, required measurements, and the step-by-step planning and construction are clearly explained using text, attractive drawings, and high-quality digital pictures.

Parents and teachers interested in helping young students with the construction of a good balsa wood bridge, can be certain that this affordable software will not only guide the students in building bridges that satisfy all the requirements, it will also induce creativity and confidence to complete every task in an efficient way. The following is a general description of the software:
Number of Drawings = 300
Number of Digital Pictures = 1,000
Academic Level: 8th to 12th grade

Students have the opportunity of viewing a wide variety of standard and original bridge designs. One important component of this product is a large set of digital pictures of approximately 100 real balsa wood bridges. Seven pictures from different angles were taken to most bridges. In that way, students can observe how every side of the bridge was put together, including its front, top, side, and bottom.

The bridge students will build uses balsa wood sticks (2.38 mm or 3/32 inch in thickness). The maximum weight of the bridge is 16 grams. Besides the glue and a cutting knife, students will need approximately 30 sticks (each 61 cm or 2 ft in length). The rules and guidelines indicated are standard in many Science and Engineering Fair competitions nationwide.

Students are also taught how to plan and design on graph paper the construction of their own bridges. They will see the benefits of making a blueprint on graph paper or in the computer, before building the actual bridge.

One of the positive aspects of this software is that it gives students ideas on bridge design, in addition to basic principles they have to keep in mind in order to construct a strong bridge. The tutorials incorporated in the software use more than 200 pictures and graphics to explain numerous bridge construction principles, including how to cut and join the wood sticks for maximum strength.

After helping the student design a bridge on paper or in the computer, our software will guide the student step-by-step, from the beginning to the end, how to assemble the entire bridge.

Requirements: CD-ROM drive, Windows, and a Web Browser.