Brandon STEM Pathways Freshmen earn top honors at Michigan Bridge Competition. 

By Pauline Bandlow

Ortonville, MI, Tuesday, April 22, 2022 – Brandon  High Schools Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Pathways Academy qualified 57 freshmen  for the  2022 Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT-TRAC) Bridge Competition. Brandon STEM Pathways freshmen have attended this competition since it began in 2010. 

After a 2 year pandemic postponement, the faculty and students were excited to once again be returning to Grand Rapids to compete against 43 additional teams from across the state.  In the 9th and 10th grade division of the competition, three-member teams design and build balsa wood Tied-arch (Bowstring)bridges.  This project tests their ability to work as a team, their attention to detail, their time management skills, and their problem solving skills.  To qualify for the state competition, teams are required to prepare a written bridge proposal and a bridge design, using MDOT drafting software. The freshmen have been working on this project since last October. 

In total, Nineteen of twenty-one team entries were accepted and these  Brandon teams traveled to Grand Rapids and stayed overnight at the Amway Grand Hotel,  The Michigan state level  is considered to be very competitive as Michigan often dominates at the national level of bridge competition. Honors are awarded to the top three teams. Half of the score is determined by the bridge model performance.   MDOT engineers inspect the bridges for compliance to design criteria and then weigh and strength test the bridge model.  The strength to weight ratio is calculated and compared to other competitors.  The other portion of the team score is based on a 7-10 minute oral presentation, again to MDOT engineers.  In this presentation, teams must share their overall experience including their research, engineering design process application, and their design, construction, and teamwork challenges.  

Two teams earned top honors at this year's event.  Earning second place was M3 Engineers: Brandon Mendoza, Colin McKinney, and Ben Misenar. Their bridge weighed 22 grams and held a load of 92 pounds.   Earning third place was team 3 Bridgeteers: Jennifer Forbes, Sadie Scribner, Eden Taylor. Their bridge weighed 10 grams and held a load of 32 pounds. The 3 Bridgeteers also scored a perfect presentation score of 100. 

The Brandon STEM teachers, Ms. Bandlow, Mrs. Hildebrand, Mr. Tabar, Mrs. Logan are ecstatic over the results the entire freshman class were able to produce this year. Seven additional BHS teams placed in the top twenty out of the sixty two teams competing. The teachers report that the students represented the Brandon Community well, not only with their team placements but also with outstanding manors and behavior while traveling and competing this past week. The 2022 return to competition was a wonderful learning experience once again for all. 

“Knot Right Bridges” Two-Time National Champs!

By Pauline Bandlow

Ortonville, MI,  April 20, 2022 - The Brandon High School Senior STEM Pathways team Knot Right Bridges consisting of Maddie Misenar, Rylee Sobecki, and Paige Thwing once again qualified to participate at both the State MDOT- TRAC and the National AASHTO-TRAC Bridge Competition. 

The Knot Right Bridges team represented the Brandon Community back in 2018 when they placed 2nd as freshmen attending the national AASHTO-TRAC competition in Salt Lake City, Utah. Their Tied-Arch bridge in 2018 held 230 lbs and they performed a perfect presentation (100/100). The positive experience led the team to set the goal of competing at the senior level in 2022.  Unfortunately, the AASHTO program canceled their invitation of 6 teams to travel to New Orleans, Louisiana this year due to heavy pandemic restrictions in the city.  Knot Right Bridges performed their presentation only via zoom during the online competition March 29th.  The top 3 honors all went to Michigan teams with team Knot Right Bridges placing third.  

Misenar, Sobecki, Thwing traveled to Grand Rapids April 18-19 to compete at the state level competition April 19th. Their team presentation was once again flawless with a 100/100 score. Unfortunately, a joint on the decking of their bridge gave out prematurely dropping their strength to weight ratio drastically. Of the thirty-two competing teams, Knot Right Bridges placed 9th overall. 

The goal this year, State (MDOT) and National (AASHTO), for 11-12 graders was to develop a Self Anchored Suspension Bridge that would carry as much weight as possible while weighing as little as possible (strength-to-weight ratio). Each team had to research the bridge type, design and conduct experiments to test for strength-to-weight ratio, and then redesign a bridge resulting from those experiments. Students are limited to the balsa wood, kite string, and  specialty glue provided by TRAC. Competing teams were required to develop a report portfolio describing the design and testing of the bridge and create design drawings using Bentley PowerDraft and other 3D CAD software. This portfolio determined the qualification for both state and national competitions.