Our given task was to firstly design 5 bridges and make them out of paper to see if they would hold their own weight in the design we made them in. Here is one of the designs I made, it was fairly strong due to the beam across the bridge, but it didn't have any initial support from the ground which made it not sufficient for a larger scale version. Once we had each done this, we we joined into groups and our task was to make a bridge from cardboard stretching from one table to another (roughly 10m away), and it had to touch the floor at a maximum of twice, it also had to let a boat underneath it which was roughly 1.5m. The bridge had to be strong enough to allow an electric car with a width of 21cm to cross it without falling or breaking the bridge.
We began by making strong supports at both ends of the bridge, made from cardboard and bamboo and duct tape. We eventually built the whole bridge across and added a bamboo support across the top, which we attached to the bridge with elastic bands. Once we had done this, we created one column underneath. We soon realised that the one column couldn't hold the entire bridge so we added projections either side which would hold up each end. 
We made the supports by putting the bamboo through holes we made in the cardboard and then joining 4 of the bamboo sticks at the top. To hold the sticks in place, we then taped them to the table. Above you can see how we held the cardboard in place and then taped each joining part of the cardboard with the bamboo so it would be very sturdy. 
The end result was very strong and we were very confident that the car would be able to cross it. Once we finished making the bridge itself, we made a decorative fence around it so that the car wouldn't fall off either side, and to also make it more aesthetically pleasing.
In this picture you are able to see the elastic bands, which we put around the supportive bamboo and the bridge itself. As well as it making it stronger, it also was a decorative feature.
The car was able to cross the bridge therefore I believe that this task was very successful. I think we worked well as a group and managed to work through any problems that occurred. The feedback we received about this project was mainly positive, although the elastic bands created less space for the car to go through so it did get stuck a little bit in the middle. During this task, I learnt how to construct a strong, tensile structure using weaker materials. This is an important thing to know for the future and for other 3D projects where we use materials such as wood and metal, as it means that I will have the knowledge of how to build structures that will be strong enough to hold larger things.
Overall I was happy with our bridge as it was strong and appealing looking. I was slightly unhappy with one section of it in particular as it was wonky and the bamboo above it was bent downwards, which meant there was little room underneath it, which we thought might block the car. It was challenging building the bridge across when we didn't have a support in the middle and we all had to hold the cardboard up while others taped, until we made the support. We also only had a rough plan and didn't do many sketches of what it would look like, which turned out to be important as I feel as it would have been more symmetrical, because we would've measured it properly first.
Overall I think this task was a success and we enjoyed building the bridge and interacting with each other as I felt we all worked well as a group and equally helped contribute.
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