Jennifer Johnson, 6th grade Science Teacher at Geneseo Middle School, had seen information about a “Battle of the Bridges” competition at The Putnam in Davenport. Her and Deb Wagner (also 6th grade Science at GMS) shared out the information and promoted the event, we ended up with four teams competing at the Putnam on Saturday. Participants had three hours to design and build a bridge. They were competing to see which bridge had the greatest “structural efficiency” (the ratio of the maxim amount of weight it could hold and the weight of the bridge). The event was sponsored by the Quad City Engineering & Science Council.

The team of Buddy Henderson, Reed Preston, Nathan Dunker, and Jake Adamson placed 3rd in the 4th – 6th grade division. Madeline Roberts and Anah Easton placed 2nd (4th – 6th division). Other 6th graders that participated were Luke Johnsen (on a team with Hayes Murphy …10th grade & Hayes’ 5th grade brother Patrick), and Hunter Redell who participated with his mom, dad and younger sister. Dylan Shipman was also there “taking notes for extra credit.”

The Quad City Times promoted the event on their website, see updated photos and stories here: http://qctimes.com/news/local/photos-battle-of-the-bridge-contest-at-the-putnam-museum/collection_d9af36c0-e466-5068-b54d-d35cb2eec472.html#1

A big thanks to Jennifer Johnson for getting the engineering ball rolling for our 6th graders and to the students’ parents for supporting their child’s participation!