Building bridges and strong foundations

A group of third-graders at Shields Elementary recently learned some new words: parabolic, bathometric and rebar. Not exactly everyday vocabulary words – unless you're building a bridge.

Three times a week this group of 20 students meets to study bridge design as part of the school's science, technology, engineering and mathematics enrichment program.

"We're trying to spark an interest in science and math," said Win Rosenberg, third-grade teacher at Shields.

As a special treat, the students heard about building a real bridge Jan. 9 from Delaware Department of Transportation Engineer Craig Stevens. He started with a brief history of the bridge spanning the Indian River Inlet, which had already been replaced four times before the work began on the newest bridge.

Then he got into the nuts and bolts of the project.

He explained how the pilings on each side of the inlet were placed and showed how cement was poured and hardened to form the concrete roadways that drivers will use to cross the bridge. Last of all he described how the bridge would be lit at night.

"It's going to glow," Stevens said. "It's going to be like they dropped it from the heavens."

The blue lights that will line the suspension bridge impressed 7-year-old Bella Myers the most.

"It's pretty cool to put blue lights shining down," she said.

The STEM program is designed to show students why studying math and science is important, Rosenberg said. Students made paper bridges and worked on load-bearing projects during their study of bridges.

"We hope to have a class full of future bridge designers," she said. "The DelDOT engineer brought a live connection to different types of things we've been doing with bridges."

Third-grader Landon Rockwell thought the whole thing was fun and said she can't wait to drive over the new bridge with her family.

"I think the bridge will be awesome when it's done," she said.