YSU got a good look at its future engineers on Friday, March 1st, at the Fifth Annual Mahoning Valley Miniature Bridge Building Competition. The competition gathered high school students from around the Valley to participate in building balsa wood bridges, which are then tested to see which team built the best bridge.
Each year, students gather from different schools, into groups of two to three, to build model bridges. They are given twenty balsa wood sticks, three three-foot long balsa wood sticks, one balsa wood plank, and medium-density super glue. With those supplies, the students have a maximum of three hours to build a miniature bridge that they will test by days end. They test the bridges to see which bridge has the highest load-to-weight capacity. Continue reading