Students Build Confidence And Skills At Popsicle Bridge Competition

CONCORD, NH — Popsicle sticks and glue have been used for more than a century by enterprising kids to create everything from lamps to toy log cabins to vases for a well-picked dandelion bouquet.

But when the New Hampshire Department of Transportation gets involved, these childhood legends become something more: feats of engineering.

Last year, NHTI – Concord’s Community College hosted the annual NHDOT Popsicle Stick Bridge Competition on its Concord campus featuring 43 teams from Concord High School, Gorham Middle High School, Hopkinton High School, Milford High School, Nashua High School South, Plymouth Regional High School, and Winnisquam Regional Middle School. Students poured into Sweeney Hall Auditorium laden with bridges created from nothing more than popsicle sticks, hot glue, and the imagination built from long hours studying bridge construction with an NHDOT engineer mentor throughout the fall term.

To test these bridges, students registered them with the DOT and then placed each end on a tall pillar rigged with a load distribution system. The team members – and in some cases, more – stepped onto a gangway used to measure load and “tested” their bridges’ load capacity vs. total weight. The teams whose bridges could hold the most load with the least building material weight were declared the winners: This year, the winning teams were Hopkinton High School in first place, Hopkinton High School in second, and Milford High School in third.

The competition is part of the AASHTO STEM Outreach Solutions Program wherein individual state departments of transportation work with high schools in their state by providing the curricula and resources for the schools and bring engineers into classrooms to serve as speakers, teach a hands-on activity and/or talk to students about the importance of math and science in preparing for their future.

And the high school students weren’t the only ones to get in on the fun. NHTI students from the college’s Architecture and Civil Engineering Technology programs designed, machined, and built their bridges made from aluminum. Not a formal part of the competition but instead a showcase of what’s capable at a college level, these NHTI bridges were built on campus by the students as part of the Steel and Timber Design course.

For a full report of the final weights, load capacities, and more, contact NHTI’s Architecture and Civil Engineering Technology programs at vtcarter@ccsnh.edu.

Submitted by NHTI.