On February 8, students from Mount Olive, Collins, Prentiss, and Magee competed in the Toothpick Bridge Building Project. Mr. Walter Blain (retired business owner of the The Blain Company) gave leadership to the event. The goal of this lesson was to not only educate students about the types of bridges that exist and how they hold weight but also to have the students think critically about how they can construct a bridge using a very limited set of materials. The objective is to build the lightest toothpick bridge that will hold the most weight compared to the weight of the bridge.
Bridges are an important civil engineering device. Students are learning that without bridges they would not be able to span water of any variety. In order to understand how bridges work and hold weight, each students will attempt to construct their own bridge. This gives younger students a basic understanding of some physics and allows older students to employee physics they know to solve a problem.
Special thanks to Mr. Walter Blain for volunteering to teach the class. Special thanks to Mr. Dukette for assisting during the bridge competition.