Bridge building competition at Orkney College

Bridge Building 2019
On the 27th of June, 4 Secondaries from the Stronsay School went into Kirkwall to take part in the annual bridge building competition at the Orkney College. The 4 pupils that went in were Tony, Aiden, Dan and Lilly. Going in with them were Mrs Rose, Ms Knox and Alistair Fish. On the boat in to Kirkwall, Andrew Rose came up with an awesome idea. The pupils decided that they would use this idea. When they got to the Orkney College they got shown the rules and how long the bridge had to be. They had nearly 3 hours to build their design. They decided that they were going to build two sides. They then put a piece of thicker wood on the inside to make it stronger. We then made triangles and put them on the piece of thick mood. We then did the same on the other side. We then put pieces of wood on the top of the triangles. We then connected the sides with pieces of wood at the bottom and top.
We then went outside with our bridge to test it out. They put a platform through the middle of the bridge and then put blocks on the platform until it breaks. KGS’s bridge had 14 bricks on when it broke, Stronsay had 8, Westray had 8, one Sanday team had 8, another Sanday team had 6 and the last Sanday team had 6
To find out the winner they divided the weight carried at failure by cost of materials purchased. Stronsay won with £410 per kilo carried. The teamwork award went to Sanday C. And the best design went to Westray.

by Aiden Stout

Bridge building competition 2019

The Orkney Construction Training Group supported this year’s construction competition for the 2nd year pupils. The event was intended to provide an opportunity for four pupils from each participating school to gain some insight into practical engineering and construction by design and testing of a model bridge.

This is a competitive event and the judging was based on the best overall bridge design.  The main prize is supplemented by two other prizes for the best bridge design and best team work.

On the 27th June the S1’s and S2’s went on a building competition at Orkney Collage to see who could build the best bridge. Aiden, Lilly and Dan, with the help of Mr Fish and Mr Rose came up with a design on how the bridge was meant to look whilst travelling on the ferry to the competition. I helped build the bridge using my skills gluing the main parts together.  After building the bridge and putting together the finishing touches we were done. 

Next we all brought our bridges out to the testing area to see which bridge held the most weight. We were competing against five other teams. We got our bridges and they place across two supporting tresses with a bar in the middle and attached to a base. From there they attached bricks onto the base; they kept adding more bricks until the bridge broke. The Overall prize was awarded to the team which held the most weight and had the lowest construction cost. 

by Tony Piper