THUNDER BAY — It's the epitome of hands-on learning for high school students as they competed in a bridge-building competition.
Confederation College hosted the event on Tuesday, with dozens of local students taking part.
Lesley Dell, the college's civil engineering technician program coordinator, said it all started in the schools.
"[Students] from across the city have built bridges within their classrooms. All of the winning teams from each classroom have rebuilt their bridge, and we're going to crown a citywide champion."
The balsa-wood bridges are tested by straddling them between two tables, securing an anchor hook for weights to be stacked on until the point of failure.
Various department faculty and students were on hand to witness and assess the upgraded bridges during the final weigh-in.
Peyton Bruni, a Grand 9 student of St. Patrick High School, Peyton Bruni, enjoyed the building aspect but also took away some lifelong lessons.
"Nothing can go right all the time, and you need to learn from it and move on."
During his team's first bridge weigh-in, they were surprised it held approximately 18 kilograms (or the average weight of a three-year-old child).
Superior Collegiate and Vocational Institute science chair Jason Pilot said students were excited but were also nervous to take their work to the college.
"We tested the bridges they broke, and now the kids are second guessing 'can we build something better?'"
He noted that while his students were trying to play it cool, they were clearly enthusiastic.
"You can tell they're actually really excited about it, and the kids were really interested in it, and they want us to videotape. In another week, we're going to give them a chance to go and watch the videos in slow motion and try and learn a little bit about where the breaks happened."
His students have even been pushing for it to be a school-wide competition.
During the project, students became so involved they were inspired to go and do their own research; Pilot added.
"They'll go and do research now because they're into it. Whereas if we were to sit down in a classroom and say, 'Hey, we're gonna learn about bridges.' It's not quite the same effect as when they get a chance to build and compete," he said.
"Giving these kids this opportunity, I can't say enough how important this is to be inspiring kids to learn what they're capable of doing, developing those problem-solving skills and really pushing science, math and engineering."
The teacher said both the science and tech departments Superior are looking at making this a program for students in grades 9 and 10.
St. Ignatius High School claimed top honours. with their bridge holding 25 kilograms before it broke.
