Dublin High School Engineering Students Build Duct Tape Suspension Bridge

February 20, 2012

Dublin High Students Working on the Bridge

An enthusiastic team of Dublin High School Engineering Academy and Robotics Club students rallied over the long weekend, led by Dublin High teacher Eugene Chou, to build a suspension bridge using only duct tape. The voluntary project, part of Dublin High School’s National Engineers Week 2012 celebration, was made possible thanks to a generous donation of Duck Brand duct tape from the ShurTech Brands company. Dublin High students returning to class Tuesday morning are in for a surprise as they find the distinct silver of Duck Tape transformed into a suspension bridge spanning two towering trees in the center of campus.

Designing and building the duct tape suspension bridge brought Engineering Academy classroom theory to life as the Dublin High students had to agree on design criteria and constraints (such as making the bridge entirely out of duct tape, building a bridge capable of holding hundreds of pounds, and making the bridge safe – just a few feet off the ground), brainstorm on bridge design options, use a decision matrix to rank possible design attributes, and design a bridge that could be built over a long weekend. The bridge was strengthened by the double-braided design of the cables (a time-consuming option that paid off in the end).

Creating the bridge wasn’t just fun, but also reinforced the value of planning, making design choices, and dealing creatively with the inevitable real-world challenges faced during construction. The students were inspired in part by MythBusters duct tape episodes (MythBusters stars Adam Savage and Kari Byron are headlining the sold out Engineering Academy Open House event at Dublin High School on February 22).

See the bridge in action, and how the students built the bridge, in this short video:

The “Douglass-Kent Duct Tape Suspension Bridge” is named after the two trees it spans, and will remain in place during National Engineers Week (Feb. 19-25). Dublin High School’s award-winning Robotics Club was also busy over the long weekend, working on new designs that will be demonstrated during the Dublin High School Engineering Academy Open House Starring MythBusters on Wednesday, February 22 (doors open at 6:30pm for the sold out event).

Duck Brand’s annual Stuck at Prom Scholarship Contest awards $5,000 scholarships to students wearing the most creative prom outfits made from Duck Tape.