Engineering Week

The 3rd week in February in National Engineering Week.  Every year the City of Mesa Engineering Department conducts a week long activity with a local elementary school.  We spend the week with the 6th graders helping them design and build a bridge out of popsicle sticks.  At the end of the week we break them with a stress strain analyzer.  The school is in the ghetto and the kids are 90% from our neighbors to the south.  It’s a pretty rough place.  Having attended 6th grade in Champaign Ill and knowing what it is like to have your stomach in your throat and your nerves on high alert every day you have to go to school, my heart goes out to those kids.  Having a Dad who was an Air Force Lieutenant Cornel and a Mom who was finishing a degree at the University of Illinois, I knew that I was at least safe at home and I had a social group at church.  I had examples that by studying and working hard you could get out of a crappy situation (and into South Phoenix – wait that didn’t make any sense).  Also the situation was temporary and a year later i moved to North Ogden Utah and life was cake.  These kids not only go to a bad school, plus many of them don’t have parents with education and good jobs and don’t realize you can make it out of a bad situation by working hard (wow – didn’t mean to get into that).

Anyway – today was the kick off so there was a presentation given and we broke some example bridges.  I thought making a popsicle bridge would interest Soren, so the last week we built one.  I had Ashley bring the kids to the school after the presentation was over and watch the bridges get broken.  You can see Soren behind the bridge breaking machine.  His bridge held 378 pounds to finish well below the top, but even with the next three.  Bad news?  I didn’t read the specifications close enough and made the bridge with illegal popsicle sticks (the tongue depressor kind and not the normal kid).  Kind of had to laugh as I often get frustrated with contractors who do not follow the plans and specifications I produce for a public works project, and I could not even do it with a popsicle bridge. 

So – there is a video of Soren’s bridge breaking, a picture of Soren and I after it was over, and Soren’s stress Strain Curve.