Hampton students test spaghetti bridges

Several groups of high performing students at Hampton are getting an opportunity to learn more about important subjects like science, math and even engineering. Recently the students in the school’s three classes of High Ability Learners (HAL) spent time in their HAL groups testing bridges made of strands of spaghetti (uncooked of course!). The overall winner of the competition was a team of four students from the 5th and 6th grade group which meets for about half an hour first thing Thursday mornings and consists of 11 students. Another group made up of 3rd and 4th graders has nine students and there’s also a group of nine 7th graders. 
The bridges were tested by setting them between two tables spaced about eight inches apart and then hanging a plastic bucket below using a bungee cord. Then coins were added a few at a time to the bucket until the bridge snapped. Teacher Kate Schendt estimated the winning bridge held up under the weight of about eight pounds of coins and never gave way. 
The team made up of Mia Wiens, Devin Dose, Brooks Olsen and Cassidy Goertzen built the winning bridge. They said their secret was using white glue to laminate the sticks of spaghetti together. 
“What we did was we added one layer of our base, and then we added another layer of our base, and then we added pretty much walls and like one random pillar,” one of the team members explained. 
When asked if they had used glue, they replied, “Yeah, lots and lots; a whole bottle!”
The students said their original plan was to make a suspension bridge like the Golden Gate in San Francisco, but “that didn’t really work out,” so they ended up using the lamination method but kept that “one random pillar.” 
In talking with the entire group of 5th and 6th graders it was revealed the students had spent several weeks designing and building their bridges and they were allowed to build and test various prototypes in order to come up with the best design.   
Schendt, who moved over from Giltner Schools to teach Spanish at Hampton this year, is also the HAL teacher. She said students qualify for the program by scoring in the 90th percentile on the MAP achievement tests they take in the spring and fall. In order to stay in the program the students need to maintain those high test scores, and she said other students can be added during the year based on how they do on their MAP tests. 
“This was the first big project, so we’ve been working on this for a little bit,” Schendt said. “Because the first one was the intro and the drawing, I wasn’t going to give them noodles and let them go wild on them, but I wanted them to have a plan, and so we’ve been working on it for the last three weeks.”
With the bridge testing now behind them, the group spent the rest of their HAL class time looking at ideas for their next project.  
Suggestions included building a roller coaster for a ping pong ball, a water slide for a marble or making a model of a famous landmark out of materials such as toothpicks, popsicle sticks, clay, Play Doh or construction paper. One thing the students needed to take into consideration was that they would have to collect any materials used to build their projects. 
Schendt said while the students were deciding on their next project, she would probably have them do one of several escape room problem solving exercises she has on hand. 
Schendt said the projects help the students develop critical thinking and problem solving skills and learn how to work as a team. 
“I tried to be very hands off,” she said regarding the bridge project. “I did give them examples of bridges, obviously, and we talked about different types of bridges... But I really wanted them to be in charge of their design.”