Under pressure
November 18, 2008
By Christopher Huber
Toothpick bridges bear the load
Seventh grader Brandon Goh reacts to his team’s bridge breaking under 2 pounds of pressure Photo by Christopher Huber.
The commons at Pine Lake Middle School buzzed with an energy which only exists when dozens of middle-schoolers come together to present a school project to their proud parents.
Students scampered around the room, antsy to show off their masterpieces and excited to be with their friends. A dozen or so parents stood in the aisle or on the periphery of the seating area to take pictures or capture the night on video.
The students had constructed bridges from toothpicks and now was time to test them.
Numerous families, and a few school staff, came to watch eight teams, or “companies” test their model bridges on Nov. 12. The teams added weight to the toothpick structures until they broke.
The Bridge Project was a competition to see whose bridge could hold the most weight before collapsing or snapping into a million pieces. But it was also a lesson in math, engineering, teamwork and project management.
They used spreadsheets for the budget and Geometer Sketch Pad to design the structures, Pine Lake math teacher and project advisor Kim Bailey said.
To test the bridges’ load-bearing capabilities, teams hung a small bucket from the center of the bridge deck and incrementally loaded half- and one-pound sand bags into it. The strongest bridge held 6 pounds.
The project is traditionally done in math class, but this year, the school adopted a new curriculum, which didn’t allow time for the two-week-long assignment, Bailey said. Instead, she turned it into an after-school club.
After finishing the project in her class last year, Bailey said she took a survey to see if it would be worth doing outside of class. Student feedback was positive, so she pitched it to the school and administrators liked the idea.
“It’s a great opportunity for any kids who want to show off any ability that might not be athletic,” Bailey said of the benefits of an academic club. “The kids really enjoy it, especially when they get to break it.”
The club, made up of 32 students met for two weeks after school to budget, design and build the model bridges. Bailey, acting as a contracting company, approached each four-person company to bid on a hypothetical bridge-building project. They had a $1.5 million budget, which included worker salaries, materials and operations costs.
“Budgets are more complicated than they look,” seventh grader Brandon Goh said after his team’s bridge crumpled after nearly holding two pounds.
Teammate Zach Freedel, joked that their “suspension” bridge needed more actual structure to hold the weight.
“It could’ve had more toothpicks to make it more sound,” Freedel said. “We could’ve done better, but we just needed more time to do it.”
Bailey said part of what interested the students was the low-pressure, no-grade atmosphere. It also brought together students in all three grades at Pine Lake.
“The thing that’s really unique is that the sixth, seventh and eighth graders could all participate in it,” Bailey said. “It’s not something that’s grade-specific.”
In order to qualify for the weight competition Wednesday night, “companies had to build a bridge under certain specifications. The bridges could be no longer than 32 centemeters long by 20 centemeters from the center point. They built the bridges with Elmer’s glue and flat toothpicks on a 36-by-16-centemeter piece of cardboard and had to be aesthetically pleasing, Bailey said.
She said she plans to do the project again next year as an after-school activity.
“The kids really enjoy it, especially when they get to break it.”
– Kim Bailey,
Teacher –
Reporter Christopher Huber can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or at chuber@isspress.com.
Comments
One Response to “Under pressure”
Got something to say?
Before you comment, please note:
- These comments are moderated.
- Comments should be relevant to the topic at hand and contribute to its discussion.
- Personal attacks and/or excessive profanity will not be tolerated and such comments will not be approved.
- This is not your personal chat room or forum, so please stay on topic.
look how upset he is lol i would be to if that was me