Students build bridges

Students from Brisbane Water Secondary College Umina Campus competed in the Bridge to Education competition at the Art Gallery of NSW recently.

The annual bridge building competition is for Year 8 and 9 students to encourage them to engage in engineering activity and see the different roles that engineering can play in our communities.

More than 100 schools, both public and private from across NSW and the ACT, entered with

Umina Campus represented by Liam Flanagan, Daniel Kim and Tarren Tweedie.

The group of Year 8 students all had an interest in engineering.

"The challenge involved the students constructing a bridge that spanned over 60 cm, but no wider than 14 cm," staff member Mr Joshua Wade said.

"The bridge was constructed from a limited amount of materials sent to the school before the judging day.

"It was then tested to observe what weight it could hold before any structural joint faulted.

"The bridge that was constructed weighed only 90 grams but held 32 kilograms before the first joint snapped.

"This result was more than competitive with most of the other schools," said Mr Wade.

"The winning bridge held an impressive 135 kilograms before the first fault."

Newsletter, 30 Sep 2009 Frank Gasper, BWSC Umina Campus