The Twenty-Washer Span
Two stacks of textbook-thick encyclopedias stood twenty centimeters apart on the battered black lab table, forming a miniature canyon. Between them, Ms. Holloway placed three crisp sheets of standard white printer paper, a thirty-centimeter strip of clear tape, and a red plastic cup filled with heavy steel washers.
"Forty-five minutes," Ms. Holloway announced to the sixth-grade science class, tapping the brass face of her stopwatch. "Your bridge must span the entire twenty-centimeter gap without being taped to the books. To pass the initial test, the center of your span has to hold the cup plus twenty washers for ten full seconds. You get one set of practice sheets now, and a fresh set for your final build."
Leo reached for the practice paper before the teacher had even finished speaking. His fingers moved with practiced speed, rolling two sheets together around a pencil to form a single, thick tube down the center. He liked projects you could solve quickly, the kind where a bold first move put you ahead of everyone else.
- span:
- To stretch or extend across a space from one side to the other.
- crimping:
- Pinching or pressing something into small folds or ridges.
- corrugated:
- Shaped into alternating parallel grooves and ridges for added strength.
- trough:
- A long, narrow, open channel or shallow space between two raised edges.
- pleats:
- Even, crisp folds made by doubling material back and forth upon itself.
- scoring:
- Pressing a shallow line into paper or cardboard so it can be folded cleanly.
- rigid:
- Stiff and firm; unable to be easily bent or forced out of shape.
- tension:
- The state of being stretched tight or strained by a pulling force.
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Preview questions from this passageShowHide
- 1What were the specific requirements Ms. Holloway gave the students for their paper bridge challenge?
- 2How do Leo's and Maya's initial approaches to the project contrast with one another?
About this fiction passage for 6th Grade
“The Twenty-Washer Span” is a fiction reading passage about Collaborative Engineering, written for 6th Grade. It takes about 8 minutes to read (1,227 words) and comes with an interactive quiz and a printable worksheet with comprehension questions and an answer key.