Bridge Competition

Ortonville, Michigan March 16, 2020

The Brandon High School Freshmen STEM team of Kaitlyn McKinney, Alexsis Spragg, and Katelyn Bobel have qualified to participate at the AASHTO-TRAC Bridge Competition for 2020 in Kansas City, MO. Date to be determined.

Each year freshmen students of the STEM Pathways program at the high school participate in the state level MDOT - TRAC bridge building competition. To simulate an engineer’s job of designing a safe and cost effective bridge, teams develop a bridge that carries a high load relative to the bridge mass.

The class of 2023 consisted of 26 teams. Unfortunately, like so many other public events at this time, MDOT-TRAC has cancelled this year's competition, with no plans to reschedule. The 78 freshmen will not be traveling to Grand Rapids at the end of April to compete with schools across the state. However, a local competition will be scheduled for a later date, allowing all 26 teams to present their 10 minute PowerPoint presentation to judges and to test the weight-to-strength ratio of each design.

The goal this year, State (MDOT) and National (AASHTO), for 9-10 graders is to develop a Deck Arch Truss Bridge that will 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 and specialty glue provided by TRAC. Competing teams are required to develop a report portfolio describing the design and testing of the bridge and create design drawings using Bentley PowerDraft CAD software.

It is this report portfolio students submitted early February. The quality of this report determines a team's qualification at both levels. All 26 teams submit state level proposals, while 5 teams also chose to submit a similar proposal for the national consideration.

Competing at the national level has now become a tradition for the Brandon High School STEM Pathway program as this is now the 4th consecutive year a team will be representing our community. AASHTO bridge competition is open to all students grades 7-12, across the US. Six teams at each grade level (7-8, 9-10, and 11-12) category can qualify. New this year for AASHTO-TRAC, the competition will be divided into two categories: Beginner TRAC and Advanced TRAC. The Beginner TRAC category will be open to those teams from schools competing for the first or second year in the national competition. Advanced TRAC category is for schools with teams returning to compete three or more consecutive years. Advanced TRAC teams will also have to complete an additional on-the-spot bridge challenge during the national competition that will be announced to the three finalist teams.

Brandon STEM Class of 22 Qualifies 63 Students to State Competition

March 16, 2019

Ortonville, MI – Brandon Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) freshmen entered the 2019 Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) Bridge Competition. 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, Twenty-three Brandon teams submitted documents for consideration. Twenty-one team entries have been accepted and these teams will continue on to compete in the 9th and 10th grade division in Grand Rapids,in April, against teams from all over Michigan. Half of their score will be determined by their bridge model performance. MDOT engineers inspect the bridges for compliance to design criteria and then weigh and strength test them. Their strength to weight ratios will be calculated and compared to other competitors. The other portion of their 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.

The two remaining teams, while not qualifying for the state contest, will compete against each other locally. The MDOT Bridge Challenge is in its 19th year. It is a part of MDOT’s Transportation and Civil Engineering (TRAC)

TRIPLE B TIES FOR 4TH AT NATIONAL BRIDGE COMPETITION

Ortonville, Michigan Friday, May 25, 2018

On Sunday, May 20, Emma Martin, Ella Miller, and Christa Spencer flew Nashville, Tennessee to compete in the National Bridge Competition held by AASHTO (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials).

Monday, along with other competitors, they were treated to tour of the Double Arch Bridge of the Natchez Trace Parkway. They strapped on hard hats, dust masks and turned on thier flashlights as they crossed the no entrance line with TDOT and National Park employees to enter inside the superstructure of roadway, to see how the bridge was assembled. It proved to be a very unique experience. They also met at the base of the bridge with the lead designer and the builder of the Bridge. Teams then traveled the to Traffic Incident Management (TIM) Facility. The TIM Facility is a training site designed to teach best practices for safe, quick clearance of major highway incidents. The facility features a section of interstate-like roadway ranging from two to six lanes, guardrail, and a full four-way intersection. The facility is used to simulate a variety of crashes and allows emergency responders to train on safe and efficient clearance techniques. This was followed by a Pizza dinner at the Mellow Mushroom with fellow contestants and the Bentley Powerdraft Sponsors.

Tuesday proved to be a roller coaster of nerves as competition began at 8 am. Our ladies of team “Triple B” delivered a flawless PowerPoint presentation to a panel of 6 judges and a packed room of over 100 guests. All in attendance agreed they had a medal in sight. The afternoon session started the main event of “breaking bridges” The crowd cheered as their bridge deck bowed and the load went as high as 87 lbs before snapping. Unfortunately, our ladies received a high point penalty when one of their towers tipped during the testing and failed to keep the required tension within the cables. This was a major blow, knocking them out of a top position. They found solace in that they had at least made it to Nationals and represented their community well.

Wednesday found the team touring the bridges and parks of Nashville before boarding their flight back to Brandon High School, completely exhausted.

The team will display their competition bridge, bridge design, and mementos in the STEM display class for the remainder of the school year for fellow classmates to view.

Brandon STEM Team "Triple B" Qualifies Bridge Design Nationals

Ortonville, Michigan March 21, 2018

The Brandon STEM Program is proud to announce freshman team “Triple B” of Emma Martin, Ella Miller, and Christa Spencer) have been chosen to travel to Franklin, Tennessee, May 20-23, to compete against 5 other teams of 9th and 10th graders from across the United States, for the National TRAC Bridge Competition. This is the second time Brandon High School has qualified a team for national competition. Chosen teams will present a PowerPoint presentation and answer questions from a panel of judges comprised of various American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), and sponsors. Judges will also examine each bridge entry to make sure it fits the specifications given in the rules, and finally a performance test will measure the stability of construction.

This year the challenge design assigned was a Cable-Stayed Bridge. Emma, Ella, and Christa formed their team back in October as “Triple B” (Brandon Bridge Builders). They have been hard at work designing, testing, redesigning and writing their 36 page proposal which qualified them for Nationals.

The purpose of the TRAC program is to introduce students to the wide variety of career opportunities available in the field of engineering. This particular event teaches secondary students how to apply a variety of math and science concepts to common engineering problems occurring in transportation systems. Students collect and analyze data, learn to use software programs, and test a series of models to develop their designs.

The top 3 placing teams win gift cards 1,200-600.00,

All expenses paid trip.

Brandon STEM Qualifies Eighty-Four Students to State Competition

March 16, 2018

Ortonville, MI – Brandon Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) freshmen entered the 2018 Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) Bridge Competition. In the 9th and 10th grade division of the competition, three-member teams design and build balsa wood cantilever through truss 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, thirty Brandon teams submitted documents for consideration. Twenty- eight team entries have been accepted and these teams will continue on to compete in the 9th and 10th grade division in Grand Rapids, on May 1st, against teams from all over Michigan. Half of their score will be determined by their bridge model performance. MDOT engineers inspect the bridges for compliance to design criteria and then weigh and strength test them. Their strength to weight ratios will be calculated and compared to other competitors. The other portion of their 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.

The two remaining teams, while not qualifying for the state contest, will compete against each other locally. The MDOT Bridge Challenge is in its 17th year. It is a part of MDOT’s Transportation and Civil Engineering (TRAC) Program, a hands on educational program designed for integration into science, math, and engineering classes. Brandon STEM students have entered this competition every year since the STEM program began in the 2010-2011 school year. The class of 2021 is the largest group of students to qualify for state competition.