Critical Thinking Skills by Building

Bridge Construction Free is a fun game students can play to learn the basics behind the physics of bridge building. This app could get students thinking about how to make a bridge that won't fall.

Overall, it is a fun, neat way for students to start to see concepts of bridges, and engineering, at work. I like that it has different levels of strength (cars vs trucks) for the students to test their bridges. The students are able to work through try and revise strategies until they are successful. There are also some basic (real basic) tips for the students, as well as hints they can purchase with coins that they earn as they go. The learning is provided by the students through them working through the different levels and taking the ideas they learned with them to the next level. There is little to no learning provided by the app itself.

This would not work as a teaching tool for 6th graders. Their background in physics is very limited and although many students had built bridges out of toothpicks, there was no carry over of knowledge to help them with this task. I liked the problem-solving nature of this software and I really liked the trial and error component. If there were more hints along the way and more direction for students, I think that they could have met with more success. They need to be able to meet with success early on in the game in order for them to want to continue to play and I observed their frustration when they did not meet with any success. I would not have students work on this independently and working as pairs seemed to encourage students to work collaboratively and they enjoyed the game more. This is definitely more appropriate for high school level student.