Bearden High School in Knoxville receives the High Point Trophy at a recent bridge building contest at the American Museum of Science and Energy. Pictured above, from left, are Bearden High School student Hayes Griffin, physics teacher William Schult, and students Jack Li, J.J. Shankles, David Maulick and Bryan Fitzsimmons. (Submitted photos)
The American Museum of Science and Energy has announced the winners in the East Tennessee Model Bridge Building Contest earlier this month.
The contest was held March 9 at AMSE. Students entered 113 model bridges, and 74 of those qualified to be tested, an AMSE press release said. The entries came from students at Oak Ridge High School, Bearden High School, Brentwood High School, Blackman High School in Murfreesboro, Christ’s Legacy Academy, and two homeschool students.
The press release said the winners in the Senior High Division were Bearden High, which earned the High Point Trophy, and the top three Senior High Division individual winners were a Luttrell homeschool student who received first place, followed by two Bearden High students awarded second and third place.
Martin Dickey, a homeschool student in Luttrell, wins first place and $150 in the bridge building contest.
The Junior High winners were two students ranked first and second place from Christ’s Legacy Academy in Athens, and third place went to an Oak Ridge homeschool student.
The objective of the East Tennessee Model Bridge Building Contest is to build a model bridge that meets prescribed size and weight specifications and is capable of supporting the greatest load per unit of mass. The bridges are tested in the AMSE auditorium.
The top three Senior High winners who received cash awards and trophies were Martin Dickey, a Luttrell homeschool student who received $150 for a first-place finish; Dalton Chaffee, a Bearden High student, who finished second and earned $100; and Hayes Griffin, who is also a Bearden High student, finished third, and earned $50. Each school of the top three winners also received the same amount as the Senior High students, the press release said.
Winners of the most aesthetic bridge are, from left, Josiah Chan of Oak Ridge High School, third place; Lee Ratanaphom of Blackman High School in Murfreesboro, second place; and Madison Headrick of Christ’s Legacy Academy in Athens, first place.
The top two winners, Martin Dickey and Dalton Chaffee, will advance to the International Bridge Building Contest on April 26 at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.
The High Point Trophy awarded for the team with the most bridges with the highest structural efficiency ratio from one school went to Bearden High.
The top three Junior High winners who received trophies were Clair Clark, first place, and Alyona Moss, second place, both students at Christ’s Legacy Academy in Athens; and Noah Hylton, third place, an Oak Ridge homeschool student.
The top three winners of the Most Aesthetic Bridge were Madison Headrick, first place, of Christ’s Legacy Academy; Lee Ratanaphom, second place, of Blackman High; and Josiah Chan, third place, of Oak Ridge High.
Sponsors of the East Tennessee Model Bridge Building Contest were the American Museum of Science and Energy, American Society of Civil Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Tennessee Society of Professional Engineers, and the AMSE Foundation. The engineers staffing the event were Ken Fricke, Jim Tonne, Steve McDonald, Mark Eisenhauer, Dave Campbell and Robert Kennedy. Don Miller provided photography of the event and winners.
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