What do you get when you take 20 school-aged students, and instruct them to build a bridge with only popsicle sticks and glue? You get a Saturday afternoon full of anticipation as each creation is tested to the maximum of its mechanical limits.
KINGSTON
What do you get when you take 20 school-aged students, and instruct them to build a bridge with only popsicle sticks and glue? You get a Saturday afternoon full of anticipation as each creation is tested to the maximum of its mechanical limits.
This was the scene at Ellis Hall on the campus of Queen’s University in Kingston. Ellis Hall was just one of several locations across Ontario hosting similar events as part of National Engineering Week.
In Barrie, students were eagerly creating vehicles powered entirely by mousetraps; in Kitchener and London, engineers worked with youth to create structures out of the building toy K’Nex.
Displays in malls, exhibits in schools, and even a paper airplane competition were just some of the highlights of this event.
Can engineering be of interest for youth? According to the Professional Engineers Ontario, the answer is yes. From February 25 to March 5, events across Ontario had a two-pronged purpose.
The first was to show students that the field of engineering can be fun. The second was to sell students on the idea of considering engineering and technology careers.
For the students gathered at Ellis Hall, there was no hard-selling of engineering as a career. The aim was to see whose bridge was the strongest.
Bridges were pre-constructed using 100 popsicle sticks and white glue, and had to meet two key criteria.
First, the bridge must span a gap of at least 500 millimetres, with a minimum bridge length of 550 millimetres. Second, the bridge must be wide enough for a Matchbox car to run along it.
Each bridge was tested for its durability using a load cell. The load cell measures force, in newtons, which is converted into kilograms for a value most of the spectators can understand.
Co-organizer Doug Hamilton, a professional engineer and professor at the Royal Military College of Canada, said previous bridges have withstood up to 200 kilograms of force before reaching their “breaking point.”
The bridges, in fact, are not tested to the point of being destroyed; a force graph displayed for all to see shows the points where the bridge has weakened and the force applied to it lessened.
The top bridges in this year’s competition did not come close to previous standards but were impressive nonetheless.
In the elementary category (for students in Grades 3 to 8), Brandon Bush’s bridge withstood 1005 N (102.6 kg) of force, just beating out Evan McNeely’s bridge at 980 N (100 kg). In the open category, Kyle Marconi’s bridge withstood 1146 N (116.9 kg), edging out Mike Bush’s bridge at 930 N (94.9 kg).
The top three bridge-builders in each category received a trophy, with a special award to Sarah McHale for the best-looking bridge.
All participants received a certificate, a t-shirt, and the chance to take away some lessons about science – and bridge-building – to use in next year’s competition.
Previous bridges have withstood up to 200 kg of force before reaching their breaking point
Doug Hamilton
Co-organizer
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