Four boys from Vernon Christian School didn’t have to make spaghetti.
They just had to make a bridge out of the popular pasta. And they did it better than any other team in B.C.
The quartet of Marcos Braul Vidal, Levi Driediger, Tristan VanderDeen and Eli Zuidhof – all Grade 9 students at VCS - won gold at the Junior Skills Canada Provincial Spaghetti Bridge Building competition mid-April at Tradex in Abbotsford.
The event is part of the 2024 Skills BC Provincial Trades and Technology Competition.
“The Junior Skills Challenge is designed to allow Grade 6-to-10 students the opportunity to explore trades and technology careers in a research fashion as well as to experience hands on practical application of skills,” said Skills Canada BC.
The event challenges teams of students to design and build bridges out of spaghetti and hot glue.
Teams have three hours to build their bridges, which must have a minimum height of 10 centimetres and a minimum span of 50 cm. During evaluation, the bridges must hold a 1 kilogram weight for 60 seconds. All bridges that can hold the weight are then weighed, and the winner is the team that builds the lightest bridge.
The VCS team won by the slightest margin, with their bridge weighing 56.3 grams. The second-place team’s bridge weighed 56.5, and third place had a weight of 57.4.
The boil to the top of the bridge building for the Christian teens began when they won the event at their own school. They then moved to the regional finals at Okanagan College in Kelowna, winning the title.
As regional champions, the VCS team qualified for the provincials in Abbotsford.
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