Students Build Bridges to Careers in Engineering

Fifty-four students enrolled in Avon Lake High School’s Industrial Arts & Education Curriculum were challenged to see who could build the best “Spaghetti Bridges.”

The contest was sponsored by the National Society of Professional Engineers to celebrate National Engineers Week.  

Students had three days to plan, build, and test their bridges. To win, each crew had to build a bridge that would support the most weight, while adhering to building codes. Materials were thin spaghetti for bridge structures and Elmer’s School Glue for spot welding the strands together. All bridges had to be 3” tall, cover a span of 12”, and not weigh more than 150 grams. At test time, the crew added weights to the bridge. The bridge had to hold each weight for 5 seconds for the trial to count. The best bridge weight to weight supported won the prize for each trial.

Weighing in and winning were seniors Michael Foley, Cole VanMeter and Julia Vasu; juniors Alexander Davis and Maggie Kundtz; sophomores Stonewall Votruba and Tim Schleicher; and freshmen Alex Thieken, Ethan Bueck and Dylan Jensen. Winners received Camp Chairs and T-shirts, compliments of “Al the Alligator.”

Judges were Engineering Services Manager Jack Gaydar, and Industrial Arts Teacher Justin Lestock.

Seventy-one freshmen through senior year students are enrolled in the industrial arts and engineering curriculum which offers classes in Pre-Engineering, Information Technology, Manufacturing Technology, and (CAD) Engineering Drawing, Consumer Automotive, Electricity, Machine Woods, and Home Maintenance.

Industrial Arts Teacher Justin Lestock calculates that about 20 of his students are planning to pursue careers in either computer, mechanical, biomedical, architectural aerospace and combat engineering.