Students span their horizon by building bridges

Intermountain Catholic

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?Spanning Horizons Big Bridge Bust.? Each of them built a bridge to withstand the weight of 50 pounds of sand.IC photos by Chris Young

SANDY — Erik Tita is a champion bridge builder. The fifth grader built a bridge out of Popsicle® sticks which successfully endured 120 pounds of weight in the "Spanning Horizons Big Bridge Bust," May 18 at Blessed Sacrament School. Fourth grader Jacqueline Williams received an award for building the best designed bridge.

The Blessed Sacrament School student body cheered, clapped, and chanted each contestant’s name as he or she competed in the contest. Students screamed with excitement and in sympathy for those students whose bridges collapsed while trying to hold a bucket of up to 50 pounds of sand. Eight students built bridges that withstood 50 pounds of sand and they all became champion bridge builders.

Following the contest, the eight champions were curious to see just how much weight their bridges would endure. So Horizons Program Advisor Matt DeVoll, who is also a counselor at the school, began filling the 50 pound bucket of sand with just about anything he could find to increase the weight. Jason Davis, an eighth grader, and James Farley, a seventh grader, tied for second place by building bridges that withstood 110 pounds.

Learning Resource Center Director Barbara McDermott said it was interesting to watch the students take on this project. The class studied bridges from around the world, looked at different designs, and discussed why each bridge was built a certain way. Some of the students started by gluing Popsicle sticks together and evaluating their designs afterward, while others preferred to do more research before building.

McDermott said it was not necessary to build a pretty bridge, but the students were encouraged to build a bridge as if they were an engineer designing a bridge for the county. She wanted them to realize they had to be somewhat neat and build a bridge that was pleasing to the eye.

This was an in-school project so the students would build their bridges themselves without parental influence. The project took about six weeks to complete, and students were limited to wood glue and between 100 and 150 Popsicle sticks.

DeVoll originally saw this project when he was in high school, and thought it would be a good idea for the Horizons students. Before the students began building the bridges, DeVoll had them draw their designs on paper. After building their final products, the students compared their bridges to their original drawings to see if their building design concepts held true. DeVoll was surprised when eight of the students’ bridges withstood 50 pounds of weight. When he lifted the bucket full of 50 pounds of sand, he thought it felt pretty heavy.

DeVoll said this project was good for the students because it taught them to communicate with each other about their designs, and they also learned the challenges of building, and public speaking. They had good points that worked really well, and those things that did not work so well.

"While building the bridges, the students had the opportunity to simply throw in the towel and give up if their design did not work, or they could start over," said DeVoll. "They all had a lot of fun with this project."

The Learning Resource Center is for students who need additional help with homework and assignments, but also has been extended to include Horizons, which is an accelerated learning program for students in fourth through eighth grades. Next year the Horizons program will be set up for students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. Horizons provides accelerated students with assignments in addition to their regular classroom work to stimulate their minds by incorporating math, science, and computer technology.