Students bridge gap between art and function

Lexus Purnell has a new respect for bridges and the people who design them.

“This is complicated,” said Purnell, a seventh-grade student at Eagle’s Nest Christian Academy, talking about her art class assignment to build a bridge out of toothpicks that can hold the weight of at least four bricks. “This project is harder than I thought it would be.”

Seventh-grade students at the school were given the assignment to build a bridge at least 16 inches long, 2 inches high and 2 inches wide. Their materials: 1.6 ounces of toothpicks, regular white glue and eight drops of hot glue.

“The idea was to get them to understand that there is art in the design of things they use every day,” said Mike Hague, art teacher at the school. As part of the assignment, students studied different types of bridges and learned what made them strong, as well as what functional design elements designers used to make the bridges attractive, too.

Each student learned terms like tension, compression, stress, load and force, and applied the ideas to their design.

“I have a lot of triangles, which makes it stronger,” said Josh Morman, 13, after scoring an A+ on his bridge. In his design he made sure he braced his bridge with five toothpicks for every inch, he said. “I’m happy with the outcome.”

Students held their breath as Hague placed brick after brick on their structures. Early failures taught everyone, as bridges without enough support or bracing often crumbled. Hague went over design flaws with students as they built.

Some students ran out of time, and some ran out of materials as the deadline for testing their structures drew closer. Purnell took a chance and bought extra toothpicks to strengthen her bridge, 30 toothpicks at a cost of one point off her grade for every 10. She figured she would make up the difference in the extra credit bricks, two bricks that could be added for extra points after one received an A.

“It teaches them troubleshooting skills,” said Hague, as students helped each other with design elements for stronger bridges. While none of the art students made the decision to become civil engineers based on the assignment, they did say they looked at bridges differently - with a more critical eye - than before.

“I like the math,” said Matt Catalfamo, who said he’s the kind of person who doesn’t look at directions before trying to put a model together. This assignment was a perfect learning experience for him. “It was fun,“ he said as he helped a classmate choose his hot glue spots. “It was interesting.”

Eagle’s Nest Christian Academy is a preschool through eighth grade facility. For more information on Eagle’s Nest, contact the school at 302-684-4983 or go to the website at www.eaglesnestschool.org.