In this all-day STEAM activity, 4th graders will step into Leonardo da Vinci’s shoes and solve a classic engineering challenge: build a bridge without glue, nails, or rope. The journey takes students through 6 exciting stages, where they go from studying historical sketches and the physics of friction to building their own functional model. Teams will work through a design thinking engineering cycle – research, conceptual design, modelling, prototyping in pencil, and load testing their designs – to see how much weight their structure can support. In this challenge, students work in teams and have specific roles, where the designer leads the design, the builder assembles the structure, the tester measures the load capacity, the documenter documents the data, and the safety manager ensures that all materials are used responsibly. In a unique “knowledge exchange”, the original teams are reorganised into new teams, encouraging students to share their experiences of success and failure with their peers, and the new teams use this information to build a second improved version of their prototype. The adventure culminates outdoors, where the students build a large wooden bridge based on the prototype models, with one and/or more teams.
SPIRIT Skill Focus
- Creativity;
- Curiosity, sense of wonder, and openness;
- Valuing people and nature;
- Resilience;
- Connectedness
- Critical thinking
- Problem-solving
Basic Information Sheet
| Age group | Student number | Duration | Number of stages | Subjects connection and relevance |
| 4th grade students | Whole class (approx. 20–28 students), teams of 4–5 | 6 x 45 minutes | 6 stages | Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics |
In this full-day STEAM program, teachers guide Grade 4 students through an authentic engineering challenge inspired by Leonardo da Vinci: building a self-sustaining bridge that stands without glue, nails, or rope connections. Students begin by exploring da Vinci as an inventor and artist, then move into a structured science thinking/engineering process:
problem definition → observation/research/questioning → planning → prototyping → testing and analising → redesign → real-world outdoor build
They construct a tabletop bridge model (e.g., pencils/rods), test load capacity, analyse what makes structures stable, and finally build a larger outdoor version using wooden pieces (where conditions allow). The STEAM-day emphasizes engineering design thinking (iterate, test, improve), scientific reasoning (forces, friction, balance, stability), mathematical measurement (length, symmetry, simple load comparisons), creative communication (sketches, posters, presentations), collaboration, and resilience (team roles, learning from failure).
National Curriculum Link and Objectives
- Science: Understand basic principles of forces and stability (balance, friction, tension/compression in simple terms). Make predictions and test hypotheses through experimentation
- Technology and Engineering: Use materials intentionally; plan, build, test, and improve a functional model. Apply the engineering cycle (define → design → build → test → improve).
- Mathematics: Measure and compare lengths; recognize symmetry and patterns. Estimate and compare loads/weights during testing.
- Arts / Literacy / History integration: Interpret da Vinci sketches; create design drawings. Communicate the process through posters, diagrams, and short presentations.