At the 2nd annual Bridge Building Competition hosted at the Vermont Tech Randolph Center campus on April 1, 2016, 146 students had all their hard work crushed. Their Popsicle bridges crushed, that is. The 16 middle school teams and 21 high school teams competed in the categories of aesthetics and design originality, presentation, load-carrying capacity, strength-to-weight ratio and predicted failure point. Prizes were awarded to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners for the middle school and high school age groups. Additional prizes were awarded for aesthetics, presentation, bridge design and team spirit. The event was sponsored by VTrans, who also provided judges for the competition.
The overall winners in the Middle School age group were the Rutland Area Homeschoolers. Their team consisted of engineers Emilia McCalla, Maxwell McCalla, Griffin Kingsbauer and Madison Kingsbauer. The 2nd and 3rd place teams in the Middle School group were from the Woodstock Elementary School and Otter Valley Union, respectively.
The winners in the High School age group included a tie for first place. The Hartford High School team of engineers, Karen Cross, Khant Thu, Connor Chandler and Jake Farewell tied with the Randolph Union High School team of engineers, Rafe Sauer, Tori Palmer, Nichole Huntley, and Shay Young. The 2nd and 3rd place teams were both from St. Johnsbury Academy. The two first-place teams’ engineers all won $2,000 scholarships to Vermont Tech, should they choose to apply. The 2nd and 3rd place winners all took home scholarships to Vermont Tech for $1,500 and $1,000 respectively.
Photos from the event are available for download at the college’s Flikr account.
Photo of the Rutland Area Homeschoolers. Left to right: Emilia McCalla, Maxwell McCalla, Griffin Kingsbauer and Madison Kingsbauer.