TOOTHPICK BRIDGE ARTICLE

Larry Griffin, 12, a sixth grader at Maple Avenue Middle School , starts work on his toothpick bridge. Students in Jan Purnell's sixth-grade gifted class are learning about physics by trying to build the lightest bridge that can hold the most weight. (Evening Sun Photo by James Robinson)

Quinn Holland, a sixth-grader at Maple Avenue Middle, is in the beginning stages of building his toothpick bridge. Quinn and other students are competing to make the lightest bridge that holds the most weight. (Evening Sun Photo by James Robinson)

Teacher Jan Purnell, right, gives some tips to Kelsey Lowman, 11, as she builds a toothpick bridge last week at Maple Avenue Middle School in Littlestown. Purnell's sixth-grade gifted class members are competing to construct the lightest bridge that can hold the most weight. (Evening Sun Photo by James Robinson)

They're starting with almost 4,000 toothpicks and a supply of Elmer's glue. In a couple weeks, they'll turn those two raw materials into bridges.

The gifted class at Maple Avenue Middle School builds many hands-on projects through the year. The culminating project for the sixth-graders this year are constructing bridges out of only toothpicks and glue.

"I enjoy it," said Quinn Holland, 12. "I like building stuff with my hands."

Quinn clipped off toothpick ends with a pair of pliers. With a meticulousness that would drive many people nuts, he glued each squared toothpick to another to create the bridge's roadbed surface. Each time he pressed a toothpick to another, he wiped away any oozing glue with a couple dabs from a fine brush.

Quinn likes to build things, so a class like this is right up his alley, he said. His grandfather has a wood shop and, since Quinn was little, he toiled away many hours, building gifts like bookcases for friends and family.

Jan Purnell teaches the gifted classes in sixth through eighth grade at the middle school.

It's more than a classroom.

Students spend the majority of the year working on various hands-on and design projects.

During a lesson about Mayan culture, for example, her sixth-grade class made hieroglyphics, Mayan clothing and constructed models of Mayan temples and game areas.

Students wrote about Mayans, as well, and developed their own theories about why the culture disappeared.

Purnell said this is the first year her students have built toothpick bridges.

"They're learning about bridges and structure and trusses," she said. "With the physics of bridges, they've learned to suspend their thinking that something extremely heavy will carry a lot of weight."

That's not necessarily true with bridges.

The five students are competing to build the lightest bridge that can support the most weight.

Dustin Noel and Jason Chesla, civil engineers from C.S. Davidson in York , visited the class before the project began and gave them a crash course on bridge building.

"One of the construction tips was on the way certain bridges should be laid out to distribute the weight of the load evenly to create the best bridge possible," Noel said.

He saw some future engineers in the group, and said projects like this help to develop an early interest in the profession.

Twelve-year-old Kyle Messinger, decked out in a T-shirt reading "Homework kills trees," glued together the road bed for his bridge. He said the engineers explained what kinds of bridges worked best and why. The two main bridges they saw were truss and arch bridges. Truss bridges have supports in Xs or triangles along each side of the road bed, while arch bridges have arch supports below the road.

With arches being difficult to form out of toothpicks and a theory that trusses may work better for evenly distributing the weight on a toothpick bridge, he chose to go with X-shaped trusses.

He may want to be an engineer when he grows up, but for now, it's fun to just build the 10-to-12 inch toothpick variety.

Larry Griffin, 12, decided to try an arch bridge.

"I found a Web site that had an arch bridge with seven bricks on it," he said about his research on toothpick bridges. He decided to try something different while the rest of the class works with truss bridges. It's a risk he's willing to take, and he hopes it's one that will pay off.

The strength of a bridge depends on how well it's built, Larry said. For the arch part of his bridge, he glued two toothpicks together near the tip at a wide angle, and ran another support toothpick straight across below other two joined toothpicks.

As part of a school project a few years ago, Larry designed a house, and found a love for architecture and engineering. His family has been encouraging him to follow that as a profession.

Kelsey Lowman, 11, said she has been noticing bridges now when riding around with her family. She can't help but see many of the bridges here are arch bridges. While much of her days are full of toothpicks, glue and architectural concepts, she can't wait to get to gifted class each day.

"It's not like most of my classes," she said. "This is challenging."

She enjoys working on something new more than sitting in a classroom. Kelsey is making a bridge with trusses up the side. She's confident hers will stand up to the test.

Steven Nevells, 12, constructed a basic truss bridge. He didn't know anything about bridges prior to this project, but he's catching on. And, constructing bridges at school isn't enough for Steven. He researches bridges at home on the Internet. Gluing together toothpicks does not get monotonous for him.

"Each day is different," he said. "You're constructing a different part every day. It makes it a lot of fun."

Gifted classes at Maple Avenue are also working on roller coasters for golf balls and marble mazes. The seventh-grade class studying medieval times is constructing castles out of Styrofoam and egg crates and early this year made stained glass. The eighth graders developed their ideas of utopian societies and made 3-D maps of what it would look like.

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