Students’ Lightweight Structures Hold Up Under High Pressure

Camden Wheeler stacked 169 pounds of weight before the winning tower he designed with teammate Zach Smet collapsed. Andy Dana, an Ayres Associates transportation engineer, was one of three Ayres engineers monitoring the tower breaking stations.

Students from two schools hundreds of miles apart had the same goals during events held as part of National Engineers Week: construction and destruction. And while every student’s structure ultimately failed, everybody won some knowledge in these design learning exercises.

Ashwaubenon Tower Challenge

Several well-designed towers put on an impressive display of strength at this year’s Tower Challenge at Parkview Middle School in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin. Ayres Associates’ Green Bay area office sponsors the annual event in which engineers work with students to design and build 30-inch towers using balsa wood and glue.

Students are graded on a ratio of how much their towers can hold compared with the weight of the tower itself. This year’s winners were Camden Wheeler and Zach Smet, who teamed up to design and construct a tower that weighed only 1.84 ounces but held 169 pounds before collapsing, giving them a ratio of 91.85. Camden and Zach’s tower threatened the record for most weight held, which is about 180 pounds.

The next best tower came from Tyler Rynish, Charlie Fink, and Fernando Coronado. Their entry weighed 1.3 ounces and held 118 pounds for a ratio of 90.77.

All the eighth-graders at Parkview designed and built towers for the competition, which concluded at Friday’s tower-smashing assembly. Check out the Green Bay Press-Gazette’s slide show of this year’s event.

Toothpick Bridge Building Contest

More than 50 students from Sarasota and Manatee Counties participated in the 26^th annual Toothpick Bridge Building Contest Feb. 28 at Suncoast Polytechnical High School in Sarasota, Florida.

A toothpick bridge is tested in the “Crusher.”

Sponsored by local engineering societies, the contest was created as an outreach activity for local engineers who want to inspire students to get into math, science, and engineering. The rules include building a “bridge” weighing no more than 4.4 ounces that is no more than 18 inches high, 7 inches wide, and between 21 and 25.5 inches long, using only toothpicks and wood glue.

Each bridge is subjected to the punishment of “The Crusher,” described as “50 pounds of hardened steel that will take your brittle wooden creation and reduce it to a pile of kindling.” Organizers use the weight of the bridge and the weight it supported to create a ratio. The person whose bridge has the highest ratio wins.