Building Cardboard Bridges (Kid Engineering!)

Ever wonder why corrugated boxes are so strong?  Since we've started unpacking, I'm surprised by how well our boxes held up.  Even after being shipped across the country, our stuff is intact and our boxes still look good.  Wow!  Those folded bits really make corrugated cardboard strong!  This thought inspired me to try building some simple cardboard bridges with Chuck.  This way we could see for ourselves how folds made cardboard stronger.

Easy Kid Engineering:  Let's Cardboard Build bridges!

(Does folding paper make it stronger?)

We cut out several cardboard and paper rectangles.  Then, we folded some pieces different ways to test out their strength.

Which one do you think will hold the most weight?

Then, we grabbed some things from around our home to create the bridges and test their strenghts.

And then we got building!

And then we built some more! 

We found that creating folds in one direction helped to make our paper and cardboard stiffer and stronger. We also found that folding them another way actually made the cardboard less sturdy!

Then we just went to town and tried to see just how strong our folded cardboard bridge actually was.  So, we stacked as many things as we could onto our strongest bridge.  Wow.  It's pretty amazing how much weight it could hold.

Hope you have fun trying out this super easy science and engineering activity out with your kids.  And if you're interested in more easy kid engineering activities, check out the links below:

• Build bird's nests
• DIY Cardboard iPod Speakers
• Build a boat Challenge!
• DIY Cardboard iPod Projector
• Build a record player

And you can also find other great kid ideas on my Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts!

Happy making!