I recently completed a project in class, it was the first engineering module. I did it with my group of Zoe, Isabella, and Cloa. The first engineering module is to design a bridge with only toothpicks and glue and string. We had to use Elmer’s glue instead of hot glue and we didn’t have a lot of time. We tied all the joints of the toothpicks and string to keep it strong. We had our design a laid out and the first part was going very well until…

The first problem arose when we found that toothpicks started to disappear and then we found out that Cloa likes to chew toothpicks, so we had to keep her from doing that. The glue wasn’t drying fast enough to make the bridge so we decided to use a hair dryer, to make it dry faster and we succeeded in blowing pieces of bridge everywhere, that was our second problem. We started to run out of time to make the top of the bridge so we just glued the top support beam to the bottom structure we had made and decided to go with that, trouble number three. So when it was finally dry and all put together. We went to go weigh our bridge the first problem with that was the span of the space the bridge had to cross was 16” and we made our bridge exactly 16”. Our bridge also looked pretty flimsy and Ms.Sauter told us it probably wouldn’t hold much. So I started putting the weights on it when I got 1000g I was like, “okay going to break now,” but I decided to keep going and try 2000g.. Then I got 3000g and I was just like, “oh my goodness don’t break on me,” I was so scared. I finally get to 4500g and I start to hear creaking, the flimsy little bridge my group made just held for thousand 4500g, I was very happy. I learnt that you need to manage your time well and if you don’t give up everything will work out in the end.

By Zoë Magee