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By: Erin Smith
The Clarkton School of Discovery Bridge Building Team placed first recently at the 17th annual Model Bridge Building Competition. The team will now compete in Raleigh at the state level on Friday, April 15. The bridge building competition is sponsored by the NC Department of Transportation.
The team which consists of CSD students Alyssa Bell, Hannah Bobby, Jackson Bostic, Lauren Bowen, Autumn Brisson, Madison Bullard, Andrew Cahn, Victor Campbell, Weslyn Hall, Heather Hardin, Joshua Hayes, Nick Hester, Carabeth Lewis, Merritt Martin, Jacob Priest, Olivia Sholar and Alex Todd.
CSD Teacher Jennifer Marlowe said the teams are given very specific instructions regarding how to build the bridge. For this year’s competition, the teams were instructed to build a truss bridge and it must have a roadway and the bridge could not weigh more than 30 grams.
“Our biggest challenge we ran into was the weight limit,” said Marlowe.
She said that if your model bridge does not meet the weight limit, the team is given a chance to amend it.
“We were two grams over,” said Marlowe. She added that the team worked quickly and were able to meet the weight requirement.
She also said that according to the rules for the competition, if your model bridge did not have a roadway or did not meet other specifications, your entry could be disqualified.
Marlowe said that during the judging process, the bridge is checked for the height requirements, the overall length requirements, and the it is tested for strength. She said that the judges place a metal plate in the bridge with a bucket and then the bucket is slowly filled with sand until the bridge breaks.
“Our bridge held more weight than anybody,” said Marlowe. The bridge was able to hold 23.4 pounds of sand. Marlowe said that if the roadway had not broken, the bridge itself potentially could have held even more weight.
Marlowe said there is also an oral presentation that is also required and the CSD team opted to preform a skit. Marlowe said the students rewrote a popular song and added a dance routine.
“We got a perfect score with that,” said Marlowe.
She said now the team will compete against the winners from regions 2, 3, and 4 in April.
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