Bridge Building and Breaking is a Sixth Grade tradition at Colorado's Branson School Online

PUEBLO, Colo. - May 23, 2013 - PRLog -- Colorado's public online school "Branson School Online" has many traditions but one of the favorite is when students enter 6th grade they have the opportunity to take an elective that culminates in a contest.

Mrs. Pieper has an enthusiastic set of 6th graders taking her bridge building class every year.  This is the 6th year to be exact and there were 22 students enrolled and completing the course.  Students in the class learned about the history of bridges and types of bridges.  They then use the West Point Bridge Building software to look at different bridge designs.  Once they select the bridge they wish to build they must create a scale drawing of their bridge, come up with a budget, build the bridge and keep records of their actual costs of building the bridge to compare to their budget.For the final bridge project students are required to build a bridge out of popsicle sticks.  

Nine of the 22 students were able to come to field day and entered their bridges into the contest to see whose structure would hold the most weight.  The enthusiasm and anticipation of the students involved and the spectators is delightful.  This year there was a new record set for the Branson School Online Bridge Building Contest. The winning bridge stood firm until 189 lbs finally resulted in its fracturing. It was a feat that was 19 pounds more that the previous champion bridge which had been substantial at 170 pounds.  The student winning was recognized and will be acknowledged on a school display case.  In addition, she received a special Branson School Online shirt that recognized the champion within.

Now we all have another school year at Branson School Online to learn whether the new record will be broken!