Chico Enterprise Record
By ROGER H. AYLWORTH

A team of five student engineers came to Marsh Junior High School Thursday to demonstrate they can build, test, and disassemble a steel bridge in less than an hour, and to persuade a gathering of eighth graders that math and science can be fun.

The five — Nat Millingar, Matt Wion, Adam Scardaci, Amanda Lee and Jeff Logsdon — are all civil engineering students at Chico State University and part of the university’s competitive bridge-building team.

The five were at Marsh at the request of “opportunity science” teacher Marie Paquette to demonstrate their construction skills and to explain what a bridge building contest is all about.

The steel bridge they erected in the parking lot of the junior high’s gym was about 20 feet long and four feet wide. It was constructed out of various steel elements milled in such a way that they fitted together and held without the use of bolts or screws.

As Logsdon acted as spokesman for the group, his colleagues rapidly assembled the arched steel bridge, using only rubber hammers to pound the various pieces together.

When completed, the four builders climbed atop the bridge.

At Logsdon’s request the four jumped up and down on the bridge to show that the structure flexed ever so slightly under their weight.

Logsdon said the bridge was designed to hold 2,500 to 3,000 pounds, or about the weight of a small car, he explained to the youngsters.

The structure is a scale model. If it was built out full The bridge the Chico State student engineers erected in the parking lot was the one designed and used at last year’s “Mid-Pacific” competition that saw Chico State compete with teams from UC Davis, UC Berkeley, San Jose State University, Fresno State University and elsewhere.

The bridges and their construction are scored on a whole range of technical standards. During last year’s contest Chico’s team came in third behind Berkeley and Davis.

In April of the competition will take place in Chico. The bridge for that contest is currently in the design phase.

As Logsdon took time to encourage his young audience to consider going into engineering or the sciences. He also told the students to find a class in any field they really enjoy, even enjoy doing the homework, and look at that as a potential profession.