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!
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!