By Jill Harlow – Loveland, Colorado … Fifth and sixth-grade students at HMS Richards Adventist School faced off in a bridge-building contest in February. Working in teams, the students were challenged to design and build a bridge out of toothpicks, glue, and string while sticking to a project budget.
An audience of parents and friends watched in suspense as each team’s bridge was tested for strength and durability with increasing amounts of weight added until they eventually collapsed. Despite the fragility of the building materials, the bridges were able to hold a surprising amount of weight: up to 1500 grams or 3.4 pounds.
As the architect for the winning team, fifth-grader Matias explained they had to work through several challenges: “At first, we didn’t have enough toothpicks, so we had to buy more, and we almost ran out of money. We also had to change our plans a lot.”
In the end, the Bridge-Building Chipmunks team won the challenge with a design that incorporated many cross beams.
The bridge-building project and competition is an example of project-based learning at HMS Richards Adventist School. The project incorporated many educational objectives such as physics, engineering, and math, but the biggest lesson of all, according to fifth-grader Tryg, was “learning to work together and put the bridge together as a team.”
–Jill Harlow is Campion Academy’s communication director; photo supplied
