The 1960s pop duo Jan and Dean probably never envisioned anything like the ASCE’s Popsicle Stick bridge contest for high school students, but their iconic song conveyed a similar idea: building models of everyday structures using Popsicle sticks.
For 20 years, the Younger Members Forum of the LA Metro chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers has been helping future engineers do just that—by organizing the annual Popsicle Stick Bridge Competition as a means to interest younger students in the field. The requirements for the bridges change from year to year, and so does the venue: for 2014, CSUN was selected as the host, and on February 15, 2014, 72 high school teams from around Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties converged on CSUN for the competition, along with 60 volunteers from the CECS Department of Civil Engineering and Construction Management and ASCE Younger Members Forum. The high school students had had two months to build their bridges, which measured 2’x1’x1’. The bridges were then put to the test in the CSUN mechanics lab for their weight-bearing capacity and deflection. The contestants also had to make oral presentations explaining how they designed their bridges and what improvements they would make next year. In an impromptu competition, the teams were given various parts and asked to build a crane that would put trash in shoebox. Prizes and awards were given out to the teams with the best presentation, lightest bridge, bridge supporting the most weight, spirit of the competition, etc.
Beyond the fact that the campus hosted the event, the 2014 competition was particularly special to CECS civil engineering students. According to Justin Hancock, past president of CSUN’s ASCE chapter and a member of the CSUN Class of 2014, Reseda High School took part in the competition for the first time, thanks to the assistance of CECS students. The school had wanted to start a high school chapter of ASCE and to participate, and members of the CSUN chapter of ASCE helped them set up their chapter and learn how to apply high school physics to static engineering so the school’s team members could build their first bridge.
