Four Peoples Academy Middle Level students won the grand prize for overall best bridge, with a whopping 1,089 pounds supported, at the third annual Vermont Tech Bridge Building Competition, held April 13 at Vermont Technical College in Randolph.
The sixth-grade students — Noble Beerworth, Jacob Fougere, Anna Isselhardt and Josephine Simone, all 11 years old — competed against 45 other middle-school teams from all over Vermont. Their adviser was Peoples Academy’s design and technology teacher Karsten Weiss.
The students’ bridge was constructed to exact specifications entirely from popsicle sticks and white glue. The bridge supported 1,089 pounds — over 800 pounds more than the second-place bridge tested that day. The strongest of the high-school bridges, tested at VTC on March 31, held 660 pounds. The Peoples’ students bridge actually exceeded the testing gauge’s 1,000-pound capacity, and it was difficult to determine precisely how much it had held. Fortunately, a video recording of the gauge during the testing allowed the judges to declare the maximum load.
The Peoples team met with their adviser daily, sometimes multiple times per day, and on two weekend days, since last September. They completed the structure, designed as a combination of a tied arch with an arch truss, with plenty of time for the glue to harden.
The bridge also won first-prizes in presentation and team spirit, maximum carrying capacity, and structural efficiency, and second prize in aesthetics and originality of design.
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