As the week went by, anticipation continued to grow for the final product of MESA Bridge Camp- a real-life bridge designed and built by a team of budding engineers! On Friday, the girls were ready to put their newest skills to work and to make their design become a reality. Many hikers and bikers passing our construction zone on the trail expressed their thanks to the girls for their service, and in the end, the girls had a project that represented a week of hard work, new knowledge, and new friends. Congratulations, MESA Bridge Campers!
Nothing can stop this group of MESA Bridge Camp girls, not even severe thunderstorms! Due to a prediction of bad weather for our second to last day of Bridge Camp, campers and counselors had to think on their toes, as the new plan was to build our bridge in one day, Friday, instead of two. Thursday was spent having more fun with the different types of bridges, and then jumping right into what we'd all been waiting for- designing the bridge we would build the very next day! In the spirit of MESA Bridge Camp, the girls worked in groups to come up with designs that would best suit our site and its traffic, terrain (muddy, with all that rain!), and anticipated changes over time. It was amazing to see how confidently and cooperatively each group created a design that they were excited about and proud of. In the presentations of the designs to their classmates, confidence was again a theme as each group took several questions from the class about their designs and answered them eloquently. Our highest expectations for the girls were again exceeded as they demonstrated understanding of and comfort in academic topics that they had only been introduced to three days earlier. With the final design chosen, the girls got working to make up for lost time due to the anticipated weather by cutting and sanding the boards that would be used for building the next day. Though the rain did come down later in the day, at this time the sun was out, which made for some great pictures of the girls sanding and sawing! On Wednesday, the girls had what may have been one of their most difficult building challenges yet- each group was given 5 sheets of paper, and using that and tape only, they were to build a structure that was at least 10 inches tall and could support the weight of as many textbooks as possible. It sounds daunting, but was nothing MESA Bridge Camp girls couldn't handle. Each group of campers rose to the challenge, and created paper structures that supported up to 5 textbooks! The girls then explored different types of bridges by researching and creating presentations about suspension bridges, truss bridges, cable-stay bridges, and cantilever bridges. Each presentation included a math word problem that the class of campers would work together to solve. These problems required each camper to not only apply some of the physics they had picked up earlier in the week, but to also take a step into the role of a teacher by helping their fellow campers solve the problem they wrote. Great job rising to the challenges of the third day of MESA Bridge Camp, campers! On the second day of MESA Bridge Camp, the girls gained an understanding of Newton's Laws and demonstrated their understanding through short skits. We were then joined by local architect Jim Rounsevell, whose firm proposed design solutions for the Belmont Bridge here in Charlottesville. The girls saw for themselves what goes in to a large scale building project, from the design, to the funding, to the politics. In addition to giving the girls a glimpse into the endless possibilities of a career in STEM, Mr. Rounsevell also encouraged the girls to "Do what makes your heart sing." Thank you for giving us some of your time, Mr. Rounsevell! Through experimentation and data analysis, the girls deciphered and 'discovered' the formula for the physics concept of torque. The second day of bridge camp ended with another building/design project- this time the girls designed and built contraptions that would protect an egg for an Egg Drop! With cardboard, rubber bands, a balloon, a paper bag, and popcorn, each group of girls created unique designs and experienced what real-world engineers must often face: a scarcity or limit of resources. Many eggs survived the fall from a second-story window! Check out the girls in action below! What happens when you bring 16 intelligent, curious, and creative 7th and 8th grade girls together with rubber bands, physics concepts, and LOTS of spaghetti? The first day of MESA Bridge Camp! The girls got to know each other over icebreaker games and 'The Cup Challenge,' where groups of four would have to maneuver a set of cups to form a pyramid without using their hands! Students then dove right in to engineering and bridge design by building their own spaghetti bridges and testing to see how much weight they would hold. This gave the girls the opportunity to learn by experience, and some trial and error! Each group's design was unique and inventive, and through the girls' teamwork, many bridges supported close to or over 1,000 grams! The girls were introduced to the world of physics through a matching game, where they were able to decipher terms and concepts that they had never heard of by drawing on their prior knowledge, making connections between the classroom and the physics they observe in their everyday lives, and with a little help from one another. In just the first day of MESA Bridge Camp, the girls tackled topics that our mentors, current Albemarle High School students, were introduced to in our freshman year of high school! We are so proud of our smart campers! |