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Engineers in Training 2004
Shodor > SUCCEED > Workshops > Archive > Engineers in Training 2004

Today, the Engineers in Training class continued their exploration of construction techniques. They learned about concepts such as tension and compression, and used an interactive applet to explore how different structural configurations changed the forces exerted upon each member. In the latter part of the session, the students split up into pairs and were given the opportunity to design structures of their own and construct them from straws and pins. The goal was to hold a pair of cups as high off of the ground as possible and to hold as much weight as possible in those cups. Groups were given a point for each centimeter that a marble was held off of the ground; each group's score was calculated by multiplying the height of each cup (in centimeters) by the number of marbles the cup held when the structure collapsed.