James Salsich

"Building Bridges - Constructing Meaning" is a program designed to explore large and small bridges and how they affect decision-making by individuals and in society everyday. Utilizing such content areas as math, science and social studies, and a final project utilizing language arts, Salsich and his colleagues will help 115 eighth-grade students at Plainfield Central School improve their problem-solving skills. Through this hands-on program, students will learn such things as how to measure and calculate angles, design a specific bridge for a specific function, as well as identify and explain the forces of tension, compression, torsion, shear and stress and strain as they relate to bridges. The students will also be able to explain the history and development of bridges, as well as explain the function of bridges in the past and in our current society. The students will venture into the community to examine and study local bridges and examine and design their own bridges. Ultimately, students will produce a final, full-color brochure of their own bridges. Salsich lives in Brooklyn, Conn.