Build a Suspension Bridge

Try these instructions to help start your build. What else can you find around your home to complete the city? Share your creations with #ScotchSTEAM on social media.

1. Create the supports

Gather 4 recycled paper-towel tubes to use as the poles for your bridge. To give them some color, you can roll them up in construction paper and tape them. Have a parent help you cut a hole near the top of each tube so that a pipe cleaner can run through it. Attach a pipe cleaner from the top of one pole to the other and tape it on the inside of the rolls. Repeat on other side.
2. Build the roadway

Secure your bridge poles to your working surface with tape. (TIP: You can make your poles even sturdier by attaching circles of cardboard to the tops and bottoms.) Cut out a piece of cardboard that can fit in-between both poles and is longer on both sides in order to make ramps so that your bridge can connect to the ground. Decorate your road with black paper and tape.
3. Secure the bridge

Have a parent help you poke holes evenly along both sides of the roadway. Connect your roadway to the top cable by inserting pipe cleaners into all of the holes along your roadway and wrapping them along the top cable. (TIP: while attaching the cables and road, place your road on a stack of books to hold it off of the ground) Your bridge is ready to go!