#RomanTechnology STEM Challenge - Bridge Building

How many bridges did Julius Caesar build over the Rhine River in his campaign in ancient Gaul? As I read his Commentarii de Bello Gallico, it seemed like a lot, but it was only two. The first one was described in great detail in Book IV. It took his 40,000 legionaries 10 days to build with pilings drilled into the riverbed by giant stone piling drivers. The Germani people carefully observed the building process (can you imagine listening to the pounding pile drivers - here's a picture of a reconstruction in a German city along the Rhine?! I think I would have died of fright!) After crossing the bridge with his soldiers, Caesar explored the lands of the Germani for a few days before he crossed back over the bridge, deconstructing it along the way. Check out this helpful video on it here. And you can read the Latin passage here (DBG IV.16).

Last summer, I took a graduate-level class on creative thinking, a field I knew little about but came to love. One of the projects had us developing a lesson plan that we would use in our actual classes. I always wanted to write a bridge lesson based on Caesar's bridges for my Roman Technology classes so guess what?! I did it!

You can read the lesson here. It mentions (and defines) creative thinking methods to get students working deeply on the engineering design process. It also mentions a fantastic FREE bridge-designer software program that kids can use to learn about the civil engineering of bridges. I learned about this program from its creator, Dr. Stephen Ressler, a civil engineer and professor at the United States Military Academy. He has a wonderful course called Understanding Greek and Roman Technology through the Great Courses. I highly recommend this course (which you can access for free if you have a library membership with Kanopy).

Dr. Ressler's free bridge-building program is called the Bridge Builder Software. Spoiler alert: as a robust download, it's not available for Chromebooks, but Dr. Ressler has offered the complete code for the program if someone wants to create a version for Chromebooks.

My students very much wanted to try this program because of the way it explains all aspects of bridge building in a helpful tutorial and then allows them to build their model digitally and TEST it multiple times after changing different variables. Even though we could not use the software in class (we use Chromebooks), my students left our first bridge lesson with great ideas for their future bridge build after just watching the tutorial.

After doing a little research on ancient Roman bridges, my students sketched their designs and then built on the next day. I limited the build time significantly because Caesar's build was quick - they had 50 minutes. I also limited supplies since Caesar would have had to do the same - they only had 25 wooden tongue depressors, 5 boba straws, 1 plastic bin (to simulate the river bed), and all the rubber bands they needed. The results were impressive! Some designs did not work at all, some were predictable, but these two were inventive and unique...and oddly close to what Caesar actually built.

These pilings were clever and made this bridge incredibly sturdy.

This one utilized straws in a unique way, similar to Caesar's pilings that were driven into the riverbed at an angle.

Last, if you're reading this post as a Latin teacher, don't be afraid to try this STEM lesson. STEM pedagogy is truly about CREATIVE THINKING. Kids have this innately, and most, when given just a bit of knowledge (Caesar's bridge as a spark), can rise to the challenge of completing a STEM challenge!