St John - Emmaneul Lutheran School

At 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, February 18, 2012, seven middle school students from St. John-Emmanuel Lutheran School participated in the thirteenth annual Middle School Bridge Design Competition. In addition to St. John-Emmanuel, Wyneken Lutheran and one home-schooled student were represented at the competition as part of the National Engineer’s Week celebration. Science Central hosted the event in which seven bridge designs were tested. The object of the competition was to "design the lightest possible ‘bridge’ to span a 24" gap with minimal deflection." The only materials allowed were popsicle sticks (200 or less) and Elmer’s yellow wood glue.

Three bridge designs from St. John-Emmanuel Lutheran School students placed in the top four. In fourth place was Cal Springer. Taking second place was a bridge built by Olivia Scott and Emilee Whitacre. A bridge built by Libby Hetler and Caroline Love was awarded the top honors of the competition. Also participating from SJE was: Nicole Chappell and Brooke Hockemeyer. Travis Chrisman was unable to compete due to illness. A total of four bridge designs from St. John-Emmanuel Lutheran students were tested.

This was only the third year St. John-Emmanuel Lutheran students participated in the event. In the 2008 competition, six students from St. John-Emmanuel submitted four bridge designs; in 2009, eleven students from SJE submitted eight bridge designs gaining the "Top Scoring School" award.