Activity best for children age 3 and up

At San Diego Children’s Discovery Museum we love learning about new cultures from around the world. Today we are continuing to explore Portugal as part of our Roots series.  

The Atlantic Ocean has played  such an important part in Portuguese history, cuisine, songs, and climate. Even today, the ocean has an impact on technology that is being created in Portugal.  Since the Atlantic Ocean has very large and powerful waves, Portugal is using those waves to create electricity to power homes. This new type of energy is called wave power. Have you ever seen large waves at the beach? Even tiny waves can be powerful!

Another remarkable way that Portugal uses technology was the building of the Vasco de Gama bridge. This bridge is the longest bridge in Europe. It is 10 miles long. The bridge has six lanes for traffic and is so long that on cloudy days you can’t see the other end of the bridge! It was named after the Portuguese naval explorer Vasco de Gama who found a sea route from Europe to India. 

Would you like to try and build a bridge? Would your bridge be long or short? It is time to become  engineers and try our hand at bridge building!