Math lessons help students bridge the gap
By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer
DOVER-FOXCROFT — SeDoMoCha Middle School eighth-graders had the opportunity to become engineers as they designed bridges out of popsicle sticks in math class. The students were given a budget to work with, such as a scoop of sticks costing $2,750 or over a fourth of the $10,000 starting budget, as they could build replica structures aimed to hold the greatest amount of weight, holding a minimum number of pounds for the lowest possible construction costs or create the most aesthetically-pleasing bridge they could.
Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
THE WEIGHTING IS THE HARDEST PART — SeDoMoCha Middle School eighth-graders Cody Labbe, left, and Bailey Weston watch as the bridge they built in math class with Jonny LaBree and Vinnie Monahan holds a total weight of 162.5 pounds. One more textbook would prove to be too much as the bridge then broke, but the four ended up with a new record in the total weight held competition (the old mark was 111 pounds).
On June 16 Ryan Nickerson’s four grade 8 math classes put their bridges to the test with the structures placed over a several-foot-wide gap between two tables set up outside. “They could compete for total weight held or weight to cost ratio or aesthetic,” Nickerson said before the first class tested their bridges. He said the bridges needed to hold five pounds for at least 10-15 seconds to be eligible in the weight to cost ratio competition, and “for aesthetic we don’t go until they break, everybody else it is until it breaks.”
“We go by 2.5 pounds for the most part,” Nickerson said about the increments added to each bridge, which the students made together in small groups. Gaven Cook, Matt Harmon, Griffin Loomis and Cam Marsh were the first bridge builders to be tested, as their structure was entered in the weight to cost ratio competition.
Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
MOST PLEASING TO THE EYE — Justice Pearl, with classmates Cam Marsh (left) and Gaven Cook looking on, watches as SeDoMoCha grade 8 math teacher Ryan Nickerson places a weight on a bridge built by Pearl, Aleisha Grenon, Shyler Lewis, Jordan Thomas and Sophie Wellington. The group’s bridge was voted on as winner in the aesthetic category.
“They are going for weight to cost, they spent less than half of their money,” Nickerson told the class gathered around the two tables with the bridge in-between. The four’s bridge held five pounds to meet the qualifications and from there Nickerson added 2.5 pounds at a time, using a collection of weights borrowed from the Piscataquis Regional YMCA.
At about 15 pounds the bridge began to show signs of cracking, which intensified at the 17.5-pound mark. An additional 2.5 pounds, at 20 total, was nearly too much as at 22.5 pounds the stress on the popsicle stick bridge broke the structure in two with the main pieces falling to the ground and little portions of splintered wood littering the grass.
“Not bad for a bridge where they didn’t spend much money,” Nickerson said.
The next bridge to be tested was built by Cody Labbe, Jonny LaBree, Vinnie Monahan and Bailey Weston. The quartet aimed to hold the most weight possible on their creation, hoping to break the record of 111 pounds set during a previous year.
Nickerson started the test with a 25-pound weight, telling his students, “You have to remember the bridge is under constant stress right now.” He then added more pounds, each time in 2.5-pound increments. At the 77.5 pound mark Nickerson said the bridge was “starting to bow a little bit” but the structure held as soon the record approached.
The bridge held 110 pounds and then another 2.5-pound weight set the lesson record. Soon after 130 pounds was placed on the bridge, and then textbooks were needed to push the bridge to its breaking point. Eight textbooks, which helped equal 162.5 total pounds, were eventually placed atop the weights, and then on textbook No. 9 the bridge finally broke.
Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
CHEAP CONSTRUCTION — Grade 8 students at SeDoMoCha Middle School, from left, Griffin Loomis, Cam Marsh, Matt Harmon and Gaven Cook watch as their bridge holds the minimum five pounds for at least 10-15 seconds in the weight to cost ratio competition. The four used materials adding up to less than half of what they could have opted for, placing second in the category which was open to students in all four of the eighth-grade math classes.
Before heading back inside, Labbe and Weston said their group used five layers of popsicle sticks and glue to strengthen their bridge. “I didn’t think we would get past 50 pounds, but we beat the record so that was awesome,” Labbe said.
The group of Reggie Johnston, RJ Nelson, Josh Reed and Hyatt Smith were the winners in the weight to cost ratio competition, using the equivalent of $4,250 in their bridge. This structure vastly exceeded the minimum requirement by also getting past the pre-2014 record, holding 138 pounds to finish second overall this year and second all-time.
The judges decided that the bridge built by Aleisha Grenon, Shyler Lewis, Justice Pearl, Jordan Thomas and Sophie Wellington was the best in the aesthetic category.