INVENTOR’S WORKSHOP: Build a bridge challenge

Objective: 

•  To develop teamwork, engineering skills, and problem-solving abilities in an inclusive environment 
• To foster collaboration 
• To demonstrate engineering principles, and encourage students to see that STEM is a collaborative effort where diverse perspectives are valuable. 

Description: 

1. Split students into mixed-gender teams and challenge them to build a bridge that can hold a certain weight using only the provided materials. 
2. Each team is encouraged to assign roles and collaborate, discussing various design options and incorporating each member’s ideas. 
3. Teams then test their bridges, adding weights to see how much each can hold. 
4. Afterward, teams reflect on their strategies and discuss what they learned about engineering and teamwork, and how diverse perspectives contributed to their success.