A group of future engineers used a friendly competition to learn about bridge building and the science of creating strong structures Monday in a unique class being offered this year for the first time at Bellwood-Antis. This first-year project-based science class is taught by Mr. Goodman.
The main point of the contest was build the best bridge out of popsicles and glue, and beat other teams while doing it.
The contest was judged by a rubric that included bridge attributes like strength, if a car could pass on the bridge without help, if the bridge looked the same as the original design, and using the least amount of popsicle sticks.
Noah Corklic and Eric Johnson had won the overall contest by achieving the highest grade. While they could not get a car to cross their structure, it held the most weight by far.
“I was amazed by what we did. I definitely wasn’t expecting to hold as much as we did,” Corklic said.
Johnson’s and Corklic’s bridge held 132.75 pounds before breaking. It was able to hold their weight of most of the students in the class while sitting on it.
When asked what the key to their design was, Johnson said “being upside down put more tension on the bottom.” That was important because the weight placed on their bridge was placed on top, so a sturdy underside was criucial.
The other contestants were Chance Hawk, Ian Clark, Jonny Bickel, Damien Barnett, and Hunter Shura.
“It was fun and the friendly competition was really cool,” Clark said.
Mr. Goodman, who designed the project-based science class for this, his last year at B-A before retiring, thought the contest and projects were a really fun and cool thing to be apart of.
“I thought it went very well. I didn’t think going in that the team that won would be so good, but that’s why you don’t judge a book by it’s cover,” Mr. Goodman said.
Mr. Goodman has also decided that the students will be allowed to redo their projects, and try to make them a little better. That suggestion has already motivated members of the class to apply what they have learned and build better bridges to improve their grade.
This class has done many entertaining projects this year, including creating a solar cooker. Their next project is an egg drop contest.
