{"id":1421,"date":"2011-04-01T10:47:21","date_gmt":"2011-04-01T15:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/?p=1421"},"modified":"2014-04-07T07:16:30","modified_gmt":"2014-04-07T12:16:30","slug":"phs-students-bust-bridges-at-purdue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/?p=1421","title":{"rendered":"PHS Students Bust Bridges at Purdue"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Several PHS students went to Purdue University to see how much the wooden bridges they built could hold. Top row: Jeff Overmeyer, Jordan Krpan, Cody Benjamin, Hayden Wolfe, Sean Hatfield, Aaron Wagers, Tabitha Sherwood, Josh Phillips, Cody Pozil, Andrew Large, Kam Eisenhower, Greg Rundle, Matthew Libersky, Elizabeth Wolford. Middle Row: Santiago Ibarra, Nelson Wagner, Phil Iwinski, Diego Ibarra, Alex Gallardo, Deven Berger. Bottom Row: Micah Harner, Zoe Mack, Sarah Iwinski, Sommer McClellan, Tori MacLain, Makayla Fox. Photo contributed by: Purdue<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Ellen Smith<\/p>\n

For some students it is that bridge-breaking time of year again. \u00a0After weeks of preparation, students from PHS competed in the Bridge Bust, an annual event held at Purdue University.<\/p>\n

Teacher Mrs. Lori McClellan is leader of this project, and has been for the five years that PHS has participated in it. \u00a0\u201cIt is a contest held at Purdue University by the Civil Engineering department \u00a0and sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE),\u201d she said. \u00a0Freshman Makayla Fox said the competition was held at Purdue in one of the grand ballrooms. \u00a0Senior Cody Benjamin defines the Bridge Bust as \u201ca competition of bridge strength and efficiency, and also aesthetics [appearance].\u201d<\/p>\n

The contest is relatively simple. \u00a0Students build a bridge, and take it to compete at the Bridge Bust. \u00a0Mrs. McClellan said that \u201cawards are given to the top three bridges for aesthetics, as well as the top three bridges for efficiency.\u201d The efficiency is tested by adding weight to the bridge until it breaks.<\/p>\n

Bridges must be built and designed according to the specifications the program gives. Benjamin described the rules, saying that \u201cthey can be a maximum height of eight inches, maximum width of six inches, length of 30 inches. \u00a0The size varies greatly.\u201d \u00a0These regulations give students many options as to how they want their bridge to look. \u00a0\u201cIn order to win, you have to either build a strong bridge…or a bridge that has appealing looks.\u201d Benjamin said.<\/p>\n

Preparing for the Bridge Bust takes a lot of work in advance. \u00a0Mrs. McClellan has 26 students participating in the program this year. On average, she says they \u201chave between 20-30 students each year.\u201d These students can either pair up or work alone.<\/p>\n

Freshmen Sommer McClellan and Sarah Iwinski worked as partners for the competition. \u00a0\u201cSommer and I put in about 20 hours or more [on our bridge]\u201d Iwinski said, while building took Benjamin approximately \u201c18 hours to build it over the course of three days.\u201d \u00a0It took senior Andrew Large \u201c16 hours give or take\u201d to build.<\/p>\n

A lot has to be taken into account when building a bridge, whether it be life size or for the Bridge Bust program. The scaled down bridges are made of two things: \u201c20 sticks of [lightweight] balsa wood, and wood glue.\u201d said Fox. \u00a0Mrs. McClellan elaborates, saying \u201cStudents have to design the bridge and then build it. \u00a0I offer help sessions to help students with research for designing the bridges and then offer advice while they build.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iwinski and McClellan \u201cwatched videos and researched stuff\u201d to learn how to build their bridge.<\/p>\n

There are several different things students must consider while building and designing. \u00a0Mrs. McClellan said a good strategy for building is to \u201cbuild [a bridge] as light as possible that will also hold a lot of weight. \u00a0The structural design is very important as is the neatness of the building.\u201d<\/p>\n

With all processes and experiments, failure is bound to come up, and Iwinski laughed as she said that \u201cYes! We had problems along the way with measuring, cutting, and having our bridge [be] too long…\u201d \u00a0McClellan recounted that they were \u00bc of an inch over. \u00a0Large said that he had difficulty cutting his bridge pieces and fitting them correctly, so they had to recut.<\/p>\n

Benjamin said that surprisingly, he did not have any problems. \u201cI took my time and cut and glued the pieces precisely.\u201d he remembered. \u00a0Having exact measurements and good architecture definitely pays off. \u00a0When a bridge is judged, efficiency is graded by the ratio of weight held by the bridge divided by the bridge\u2019s weight. \u00a0Lots of planning is a must for a successful bridge.<\/p>\n

At the competition, PHS students competed very well. \u00a0Plymouth\u2019s ton ten bridges in the category of structural efficiency were: in 7th place Andrew Large and Cody Pozil, in 9th place Makayla Fox, in 10th place Matt Libersky, in 12th place Deven Berger and Nelson Wagner, in 16th place Elizabeth Wolford and Greg Rundle, in 21st place Alex Gallardo, in 25th place Cody Benjamin and Josh Phillips, in 27th Sommer McClellan and Sarah Iwinski, in 28th place Aaron Rogers, and in 34th Zoe Mack and Kameron Eisenhower. \u00a0Aeshetics winners out of a perfect score of 15 were: the team of Santiago Ibarra and Jeff Overmyer with a 14, Makalya Fox and the team of Cody Benjamin and Josh Phillips with a 13, the team of Andrew Large and Cody Pozil, Sommer McClellan and Sarah Iwinski, and Phillip Iwinski and Jordan Krpan with 12\u2019s. \u00a0Finally, Matt Libersky, Alex Gallardo, and the team of Victoria MacLain and Tabitha Sherwood received 11\u2019s.<\/p>\n

This activity that many students take part in can actually have future benefits. \u00a0\u201cFirst place [at the competition] gets a $100 cash scholarship, second place gets a $50 cash scholarship, and third place gets Purdue apparel.\u201d said Mrs. McClellan. \u00a0These scholarships can definitely help students when applying for a college, and theoretically, a very successful \u201cbridge buster\u201d could earn multiple scholarships over the four years of high school.<\/p>\n

McClellan added that this activity teaches \u201cproblem solving skills using a hands-on approach. \u00a0It also opens students\u2019 eyes to the possibilities an engineering degree can offer.\u201d \u00a0McClellan and Iwinski agreed, saying that the program is beneficial if one wanted to pursue the career field of engineering. \u00a0Large said that he will actually be attending Purdue University next year.<\/p>\n

Whether they are in it for future benefits or great memories, the students that participated in this year\u2019s Bridge Bust had a great time preparing and competing at the contest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  By Ellen Smith For some students it is that bridge-breaking time of year again. \u00a0After weeks of preparation, students from PHS competed in the Bridge Bust, an annual event held at Purdue University. Teacher Mrs. Lori McClellan is leader … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-school-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1421"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8868,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421\/revisions\/8868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}