Bridge Unit Study - Lesson 4: Cofferdam Model

My son built a cofferdam.

Have you ever wondered how construction engineers build structures underwater? Well they don't. They remove the water from the area they want to build with a structure called a cofferdam or a caisson. One method of building a cofferdam is to drive large metal structures into the soil in rings.  Then the water inside the ring is pumped out so the construction can be completed.

Cofferdams were used as many as 2000 years ago by the Romans who developed a unique type of concrete. Roman concrete incorporated ash material from nearby Mt. Vesuvius which made it very similar to modern concrete, but most importantly, the ash made the concrete waterproof. Since the Romans weren't building with steel, their cofferdams were constructed by driving two rings of wooden posts into the soil. The space between the rings was then filled with a watertight material such as clay to prevent water coming into the inner ring. They also did not have pumps, so the water was removed with buckets. Nonetheless, this method for removing water from an area allowed them to build support structures for bridges in the water.

While learning about cofferdams, we watches the video Engineering an Empire Rome as it was a very educational video which linked our bridge study to history.



The book Bridges: Amazing Structures to Design Build and Test is a fantastic resource for learning everything about bridges. It has been the foundation for our bridge study, and is packed with both information as well as activity ideas to help solidify concepts.


My son followed the instructions in the book for building his cofferdam. First he put sand into the bottom of a bowl and added water covering the sand. Next he put craft sticks into the sand in the water in a ring. The Romans would have used tree trunks for this step.


Then he put tape around the craft sticks to hold them in a circle and added a second ring of craft sticks.

The Romans filled the gap between the rings with waterproof material such as clay. Plastic wrap worked well for my son.

Finally, he used a turkey baster to remove the water from inside the cofferdam.

Please visit our Science Page for more interesting hands-on learning ideas.

Geography Game

This is a very straight forward way to study countries of the world. All of the kids enjoyed playing the game when they were about six years old.

Materials:
Internet and printer or Blank outline country map
Crayons or colored pencils
Letter dice
Object counters such as dried beans



Set up
  • The first step is to decide on a continent to study and then print out a Blank Outline Map.
  • Next color each country a different color.
  • When you are ready to play, each player chooses two dice.
  • Then decide on a winning number. This is the number of beans a play must collect to win the game. 30 would be a good place to start.
Play
  •  The first player rolls the two letter dice and then finds all the countries that begin with the letters rolled. A bean is placed on each country.
  • When the player is finished placing beans, other players have a chance to place beans on any missed countries.
  • The player removes and keeps the beans and play proceeds to the next player. 
  • When a player collects 30 beans, or then number agreed upon at the start, the game is over.


Area of a Triangle: Hands-on Math

We did a simple hands-on activity to prove the area of any triangle is 1/2 the area of a rectangle.


This activity came from the Murderous Maths book Savage Shapes. (Great series, bad title.) In the UK math is maths. This British series discusses pre-algebra level math concepts in story format. The books feel more like comic books than text books. They are quirky and entertaining, yet educational. I highly recommend you check them out.

To begin this activity sketch three parallel lines. Then measure four draw marks the same distance on the center line to serve as the base for the shapes. Perhaps 1.5 inches. Next draw two perpendiculars extending from the first base to create a rectangle. Connect the base lines for the second base to a point in the center of the base above the line (and below the line) to create two isosceles triangles. The third base should be connected to a point above one endpoint to create a right triangle. The final base should be connected to a point outside the base to create an obtuse triangle.

Cut out the shapes. 2 rectangles, 6 triangles. (Only 1 rectangle is needed)

Place each pair of triangles on top of the rectangle to fully cover the area. This shows that the area of one triangle is equal to the area of 1/2 of the rectangle.

Note: It will be necessary to cut some of the triangles in order for them to fit onto the rectangle.





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