Epic Bridge Engineering Challenge *FLEX* - Can Your Bridge Handle the Pressure?

The description of this course is broken into four parts to simply the process of understanding how the FLEX element is ideal for the bridge building class. See the answers to each of these questions in the description below.
Who Should Join The FLEX Bridge Challenge Class?
How Does The Bridge Building Process Work?
Why Choose Flex For This Class?
How Do the Classes Interact During This Course?
What Is The Weekly Agenda?

Who Should Join The FLEX Bridge Challenge Class?
1) Everyone! Well... everyone as long as you have a computer that can run the software(It works for all Windows and Apple Users).
2) This class assumes that you have a strong understanding of comparing decimals. Several steps will involve students choosing bridge members that are greater than 0 and below 0.7. 
3) Students who are looking for a real challenge. A large part of class will have students competing to create the least expensive yet safe bridge.


How Does The Bridge Building Process Work?
Do you have what it takes to design and test a virtual bridge using cutting edge civil engineering software? 
Your challenge: Harness the forces of tension and compression to build the least expensive working bridge before class time runs out. During each of our four weeks of the class you will play the role of a civil engineer and be provided with a unique design challenge and a 7 day time period to design the least expensive working bridge. Just like a real civil engineer, you will be provided with specific requirements for your bridge including height, arch vs standard truss and weight distribution.

The top bridge designs will earn you a spot on our ongoing class leaderboard not to mention bragging rights. No Experience is necessary. No prior experience is necessary to learn how to use the Free Bridge Designer software. In this class you learn by doing, so even if you are 100% new to bridge designing you will learn the ropes very quickly. The first week's video will introduce the bridge software and bridge optimization. Returning students will be able to get straight to optimizing their 1st bridge design.

Why Choose Flex For This Class?
Holding this class using the  FLEX(flexible scheduling) model allows the class to start at anytime that fits your schedule. The part of the class that I would normally guide the students through making their bridge(the least interactive part of the class) is all in a recorded format to play, pause, repeat at any pace that works for the student. The FLEX class takes place over 4 weeks rather than 4 class periods. Bridge design turn-ins are once a week with several optional teacher check-ins for support.

The interactive parts of the class where students work on their own bridges, comment on other students designs and submit their bridges for a place on the class leaderboard are all still there, just without the requirement of a live meeting. I am also available to meet with any student live who needs more support than a simple Outschool message can achieve. 

How Do the Classes Interact During This Course?
Class Interaction
Each week of the class will have multiple "check-in" assignments to provide students with the opportunity to interact with the teacher, receive feedback and interact with the other aspiring civil engineers in the class. 

Student to Student Collaboration
As they learn the ropes of the bridge program students will each choose their own bridge scenario as an extra challenge for the class to work on collaboratively and optimize during the next week. Students will post screen-shots and/or videos to show the class their progress initiating a debate on the pros and cons of each bridge modification. Students will see how each designer's personalities lead to different stylistic decisions in the bridge design process and why bridge engineers often work together as a team to develop the best design.

Student to Teacher Collaboration
Check-in #1 Students will provide either a copy of their current bridge file or a screenshot(Both will be explained in the introduction videos) via the Outschool classroom. The goal of this check-in will be to show that the student is working on the correct scenario and that they are comfortable with the challenge ahead. Students will share the areas they think will be the most challenging and predict possible pitfalls in their bridge design Students have the opportunity to set up a live meeting if they need help setting up the scenario. 

Check-in #2 Students will provide either a copy of their current bridge file or a screenshot showing the optimization that they have made on their bridge and again have the opportunity to set up a meeting for assistance or feedback. 

Check-in #3 Students will submit their completed bridge scenario file for judging. The top 3 lowest priced bridges will be awarded points on our class leaderboard.(3 for first, 2 for second and 1 for 3rd) Students will collaborate with the teacher and other students to further enhance the bridge design as a group.

What Is The Weekly Agenda?
Class Agenda
Week 1: Introduction and teacher led bridge design optimization lesson. 
Student will be provided with a step by step video tutorial covering the following topics
1- Downloading and Installation
2- Bridge Scenario Parameters and template choice
3- Building and testing your first bridge
4- Optimizing your bridge for tension and compression
5- Advanced optimization tips and tricks
6- Bridge submission and leaderboard information
Students who have completed my 1 day live course will begin at step 5 of the tutorial as they have already covered these topics.

Students will have until the end of week 1 to submit their finished bridge file to the classroom. Students may submit multiple bridges for feedback during the week, but only the first bridge counts toward the leaderboard. 

Week 2: The class will share their designs for the first week's bridges via the Outschool classroom and points will be awarded based upon the least expensive stable bridge Scenario #2 will be introduced. Students will have until the end of week 2 to complete this scenario.

Week 3: The class will share their designs for the second week's bridges and points will be awarded based upon the least expensive stable bridge. Scenario #3 will be introduced. Students will have end of week 3 to complete this scenario.

Week 4 The class will share their designs for the third day's bridges and points will be awarded based upon the least expensive stable bridge Scenario #4 will be introduced. Students will have until the end of week 4 to submit their final bridge. Points will be awarded and a civil engineer winner announced.

Before our first class make sure to download AND install the Bridge Designer software. 
This is the address of the software: https://bridgedesigner.org/download/
Note: The installation files themselves will be downloaded from a second site called Sourceforge.
There will not be time to download it once the class begins. Make sure it loads on your computer. You are welcome to experiment with the program, but don't stress if things seem too complicated. We will figure it all out together.