Kenning and VanCleef to participate in National Bridge Competition

By Bryan Solomon

February 29, 2008

The Thayer Central Physics class participated in the 29th annual State Bridge competition held in Aurora, Nebraska on Saturday February 23rd. Destry Kenning and Kirsten VanCleef placed 2nd by holding 110.1 lbs and having an efficiency of 3517 (which means that their bridge held 3517 times its own weight). Jessica Kroll and Brady Werner placed 6th holding 100.4 lbs and having an efficiency of 2573. Nick Long and Ethan Moeller placed 10th holding 77.1 lbs and having an efficiency of 1900.7.

The bridge competition started out in October as students studied forces and applied forces. They applied their knowledge of forces in the classroom to design and construct a bridge. In the beginning, some of the students were hesitant and nervous thinking that a little bridge would have to hold around 35-40 lbs to get an A. The classroom goal was to have an efficiency above 750. The students also examined each others bridges and a craftsmanship grade was given. They also looked at each of the bridges and tried to predict which of the bridges would rank as the top three. Some students even admitted, “it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.”

Overall, I feel that the class designed and constructed some top quality bridges. We had 6 of the 7 bridges score an efficiency above 1000. The top three bridges in the class were then eligible to compete in the State Bridge competition. I think the project is always a fun activity and teaches students to use physics laws and also teaches them a lot of patience. Dalton Gandara stated “I think it was good because it helped us understand techniques for building bridges and applying physics laws to real life situations.”

The State bridge competition saw Thayer Central place 3rd out of 18 as a school in combined team efficiency of 7990.7 (This was the highest efficiency that Thayer Central has posted in my 12 years of teaching). By placing 2nd, Destry and Kirsten will be reconstructing their bridge and sending it to Chicago, Illinois to compete in the National Bridge competition. I am very proud of the dedication and precision the students have shown over the past 4 years in developing quality bridges.