Students learn to build bridges, relationships during engineering competition
150 junior students battle for Lego, K'Nex crown

YorkRegion.com
March 2, 2014
By Jeremy Grimaldi

Because the strength of any structure is in the design, building bridges that don’t collapse under great weight is perhaps the greatest challenge and responsibility of any civil engineer.

For kids, it’s just a fun way to learn about physics and co-operation. That’s just what some 150 10 and 11-year-olds got up to Saturday at Richmond Hill’s Alexander Mackenzie High School.

The afternoon was filled with bridge building, both literal and metaphorical, using two of the most popular building toys on the market, K’NEX and LEGO.

Once completed, judges placed weights on the structures, with a bridge able to hold the most being crowned the winner. Organizers, who are also members of the Professional Engineers Ontario, said what the children can come up might shock even the most seasoned industry veteran.

“Years ago, some children built a K’NEX bridge that withstood all the weight we could find, plus a chair and a child; all together it was about 175 pounds and it still didn’t break,” said Mervat Rashwan, the founder and organizer of the event, which has been running for the past 11 years.

This year, 41 groups, from schools in Markham, Richmond Hill, King, Vaughan and Richmond Hill, participated in the day’s activities, the toys for which were donated by the toy giants.

Ms Rashwan said one of her proudest achievements in organizing the event has been the growth of female participants, which has ballooned from only a handful when it began, to more than half.

“When I left Egypt 36 years ago, half of my classes were female students training to be engineers, but when I got to North America there were only two women in my class,” she said.

“It was very intimidating for me.”

Although the field remains male dominated in Canada, she said she takes great joy in introducing girls to the trade. For example, she said, one female participant came into the event wanting to be a dress-designer and left wanting to be an engineer.

“Engineering can seem like an obscure career to some, but this kind of event, with hands-on participation, makes all their fears disappear, it also teaches co-operation and helps with the curriculum,” she added.

Leo Xie, 10, from Markham’s Cole Dale Public School, said he has been wanting to attend the event for years and has finally made it.

“You can train yourself to build bridges with LEGO and then test it out to see how much it can hold. I think ours will hold 900 pounds,” he said.

Despite Leo’s optimism, Ms Rashwan said the average LEGO bridge can hold about 50 pounds worth of weight, while the average K’NEX bridge can hold between 50 and 80 pounds. She also noted that the strongest bridges always come from the groups that understand it is triangle structures, just like those holding up real bridges, which are the soundest shape of them all.

Another event, also celebrating National Engineering Month, will be held for students at French learning institutions March 6 in Toronto.