On Tuesday, October 1st, students in Mr. Petrie’s Design Drawing and Production class set out to tackle an exciting engineering challenge. That was the day of the annual “Compression Challenge”, which has become a highlight of the year for students in this class.
For this challenge, students are tasked with building a support structure that is three inches by three inches by three inches. Their goal is to use that structure to support as many three pound textbooks as possible. The catch? It has to be made using only three sheets of paper and a limited amount of masking tape.
If it seems impossible, it’s not. But is it challenging? Absolutely.
Students Evan Gonzalez and Gavyn Hatzinger led the way in class this year with an impressive 26 textbooks, or 78 lbs., with several of their peers following very close behind.
However, the school record is safe for another year. In 2022, Abigail Arnold put together a structure that held a simply remarkable 36 textbooks, or 108 lbs, before it collapsed.