Middle Schoolers Eagerly Take Part in New Engineering Offering
RPS Explorations: Engineering is a newly-introduced science offering that ran at Rutgers Prep over spring break. Steeped in fundamental concepts from both physics and engineering, the program is just the latest example of the voracious appetite for hands-on learning that exists at RPS. As we saw with our Oceanography program in November, our students are always eager to roll up their sleeves and try something new, and they jumped at the opportunity to take part.
During this exploration, students were tasked with designing, building, and testing a model bridge over a two-day period, following the same set of rules as the International Bridge Building Contest (IBC). In the process they got a sense of what it's like to be an engineer, designing structures to a set of specifications and testing them for functionality.
The program was run by Upper School physics teacher Drew Schoudel with invaluable assistance from junior Sawyer Moss '25, a physics student and aspiring engineer, himself, who volunteered his time over break to help make the program a success.
The first day kicked off in the Upper School physics lab, where, after some introductions and objective setting, the students jumped straight into a one-hour pedestal challenge. With limited resources, they created pedestal structures to hold as much weight as possible five centimeters above the test surface. This activity gave them more familiarity with the materials they would use to build their bridges as well as a chance to build and test prototypes. There was a critique after each test, and the group took care to learn from effective designs and weak points.
After fueling up with some pizza for lunch, they got back to work, meticulously fleshing out their designs and starting to build their bridges.
They continued building diligently on day two until the moment of truth. They had to put their bridges to the test. Each structure was tested against IBC rules, with a bucket suspended below the bridge having sand added to it gradually until the bridge gave way or 50,000 grams of sand was inside, whichever came first. With bated breath the students watched how their bridges fared, learning invaluable lessons from both successes and failures.
As the program drew to a close, one thing was quite clear, the students had relished the opportunity and were eager for more just like it. We're looking forward to seeing what comes out of the physics lab next!