This week we were assigned our first project in technology! In this assignment, we were told to make two beams. One of the beams was an I beam, the beam we were learning about, and another beam that was our choice and our design. Mr. Calvert provided us with a video on how to make an I beam out of cardboard and glue. After I finished building the first beam, I started thinking about what I should make my second beam look like. I was having a hard time deciding what I should do, but I remembered in 5th grade during our bridge unit that the triangle is the strongest shape. I ended up creating the beam of my choice as a three sided beam that was glued at the corners ( a triangle shape but long)
That was only the first few steps. Once the building process was done, we had to test out our beams. The testing process went like this:
Get two chairs and place one of your beams on top. Then, get a bag and collect a bunch of cans. Put the beam through the bag loops while still having the beam sit on the chairs. One by one, add the cans (I just kept adding as many as I had). Try this method with both of your beams. Evaluate what happened and if the weight caused any damage to the beam. Record this whole process on Flipgrid.
I noticed that both of my beams were sturdy. They both stayed up and held all the weight, which would be 12 (8oz-ish) cans. The only difference I noticed was that where the bag loops were placed, it created an indent in the cardboard.