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Justin Bongiorno's Project 2 Planning Guide

Page history last edited by Justin Bongiorno 9 years, 2 months ago

Goals

My goal is to make it possible for readers to be able to successfully construct a bridge from popsicle sticks by following the instructions provided, as well as to gain a better understanding of some of the structural components of a bridge.

Intended Readers

Intended readers of this topic are those who are looking for a project to work on in their spare time. The steps I will provide will allow anybody who reads them to be able to accomplish building a bridge out of popsicle sticks, while the reader also has the option to design their own blueprint, which gives them a wide range of freedom to create their own design if they choose to do so. The materials and equipment for this project are relatively inexpensive, and once the materials are acquired, the reader can begin to build immediately.

WikiHow Community Analysis

I am responding to a requested topic. I was unable to find any articles on wikiHow that instruct readers how to build a bridge out of popsicle sticks. However, I did find articles demonstrating how to build a bridge out of skewers, how to build a popsicle stick tower, and how to build a spaghetti bridge.

http://www.wikihow.com/Build-a-Model-Bridge-out-of-Skewers

http://www.wikihow.com/Build-a-Popsicle-Stick-Tower

http://www.wikihow.com/Build-a-Spaghetti-Bridge

The Build a Spaghetti Bridge article seems to be more geared toward readers who are attempting to build a bridge in which they can test its strength by adding weight until the bridge collapses. Although I will mention the reasoning of how triangles contribute to the strength of a bridge, I do not plan on writing this article with hopes that this bridge should be destroyed. I hope to provide the readers with a step-by-step procedure that allows them to build a bridge, which they may display if they would like to. I also hope that the wikiHow article could inspire friends and families to take part in a creative activity. The reader may also try to destroy the bridge as well, which is entirely okay.

Brief Statement of Research

I have done a fair amount of research about popsicle stick bridges and have found that many competitions take place, where competitors compete to see who can build the strongest bridge. Although the bridge I will be providing a design of will have structural integrity, my goal is not to provide instructions to build the strongest bridge. This instruction set I provide will guide readers to build a bridge with moderate structural integrity and an elegant design. I have also started to research aspects of different types of truss bridges, which has given me a greater understanding of the construction of bridges.

Materials and Equipment:

Various sized popsicle sticks
Hot glue gun
Glue sticks for hot glue gun
Scissors
Large piece of cardboard or construction paper
Ruler
Pencil
Drafting paper

Procedure

1. Decide length of bridge to be built.

2. Create blueprint of bridge on drafting paper with measurements. Lay the popsicle sticks over blueprint to ensure accuracy. (I plan to use a photo of the blueprint of my own design when I am building my bridge for this assignment.)

3. Construction of the truss structure.