Spira Day 16: Build a Bridge, Create a Car!

Today was a fantastic day! The morning half was dedicated to learning about cars as we took a mini field trip down to Brown University's Car Team workshop. In the department of engineering at Brown, there are several hands on groups that really focus on bringing engineering to life and the Car Team is definitely one of them! The Car Team builds a racecar from scratch and races it against competing school teams from all around the world every spring in the state of Michigan. The girls were able to receive a tour of the workshop and learn about how the team goes about designing and constructing their racecar. In the afternoon portion of camp, we introduced mechanical & civil engineering. We taught the girls about the thought processes that come along with civil engineering as we went over different types of structures. This led straight into our next activity in which we had the girls build bridges! After teaching them about different types of trusses and bridges, we split the girls into three teams and had then construct their very on miniature bridge using balsa wood and glue. The girls loved being able to get so hands on and were wildly creative. The day ended with the girls finishing up their designs & tomorrow we plan to test the strength of their bridges. Can't wait!