Friday, July 4, 2008

london bridge is falling down

Today for Science & Maths Society, we had a bridge building competition.

Materials? Recyclable materials
Conditions?
-The tallest member of the group is able to pass under the bridge
-Is able to hold the heaviest weights

Ok, I have to admit, when I first saw the notice board informing us about the meeting and competition, I was like darn, this is gonna be so boring. And today, none of us actually brought any recyclable materials (like they told us to) because none of us actually thought we were going to do anything. Anyway, the group leaders were supposed to find us to tell us what to bring and all but they didn't. So, we couldn't care less.

So, after school, we were dreading the meeting because:
a) Pn. Choo, the society teacher, was probably gonna screw us up for not bringing anything
b) It's 12.30, I'm hungry and I should be heading home now

Anyway, we marked our attendance and got into our groups. My group, consisting of 6 people, had only newspapers and cellophane tape (which was provided, by the way). How the heck are we supposed to build a bridge with newspapers only??? Heheh, so a few of my group members went to 'steal' recyclable items from the recycling bins. Smart? Of course =)

We had 30 minutes to complete our bridge. We spent about 10 minutes staring at the materials with no idea what to do. But in the end, we managed to finish a 'bridge' with no time to spare. I actually drew a picture of it and was going to upload it. But freaking Blogger isn't letting me do that and I'm very frustrated with it now. Oh well, I shall edit it next time if I remember.

*edited* Yay!! Blogger's working again..finally. Ok so this is a diagram of how our bridge looked like. I think my diagram looks better than the actual one..but what the heck =)

Then, time to test our bridge. First of all, our tallest member had to go under it. Luckily, we can crawl under it. At first, when I heard this condition, I was like are they crazy?? How the heck are we gonna build a bridge so tall that the tallest person can walk under it?? But thank God, that what they meant was crawling.

First trial - passed. =) Second test. To place as many weights as possible on our bridge. Amazingly, our 'bridge' managed to hold two large weights (about 2 kg? hmm..) before collapsing. So 'sim thia' when it collapsed. Our hard work gone.

Our bridge was the first to be tested. So after that, we watched other groups' bridges collapse. Phaik Chern's group's bridge managed to withstand 2 large and 1 small weight. Not bad eh? But I'm still proud of my bridge because we managed to finish it last minute.

All in all, I actually had fun. Yeah, it was hot, I was sweating from running to the recycling bins and trying desperately to tape the bridge together. But seriously, it was fun =) Although, there was this one group whom I hope get disqualified. They used wooden chairs and planks to build their bridge! So yeah, wood is recyclable but I really don't think it's fair. Of course it could hold all six weights! It was made of wood!! Argh!

3 insights:

Esther said...

yup, i heard about this from Shu Zian. Makes me feel like i should quit choir and join sc and maths next year. but noooooo.. we're gonna sing at an international competition next year, and i really want to go!!! so sad. but there's no way i'm joining double clubs.

Anonymous said...

I know! lol we didn't bring anything either, and lien tee and i ended up stealing stuff from the recycle bins. XD

the group with the wooden legs one isn't really fair. menakaa said that the notice board said that use only recyclable materials and no wood. *sigh* but i think everyone did a good job :D

Carmen C. said...

2esther:
u have to have to join sc & maths!! we do FUN stuff..disection n stuff =) double clubbing is cool lol

2caramelapples11:
really?? lol..but i liked ur group's bridge..the idea was good =)

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