P.O. Box 5
Afton, NY 13730
607.639.8200

In a 30 minute activity designed to illustrate their own teamwork, creativity, attention to detail, and willingness to excel, student groups in Art/Library class created a series of bridges from found objects to meet three criteria:

- The bridge must be "beautiful:" well-crafted, symmetrical, elegant.

- The four bridges must maintain an overall consistent slope.

- It must be a "best effort."

In fact, the activity was a metaphor for our overall 10-week group project:

Everyone was on task because they wanted to succeed for its own sake,
There was an expectation of success.
Communication was to the point. It was focused, and it was non-stop.
The willingness to propose an idea, amend it, try it, and adapt it was rampant.
Students wanted to "finish-up" after class: in effect, assigning themselves homework because of their ownership of the outcome.

Our closing critique brought out these points. We shall see, in the upcoming weeks, if the meaning behind the metaphor takes hold.

Julie Snyder, Amanda Fisher, Robert Harvey, and Jodi Keller weave a series of suspension lines to stabilize the center of their span.

Ryan Ball, Matt Masse, and Mike Sickler at the uppermost end of the bridge series are using a rolled-paper tunnel to cross their span.

Shaina Page, Stefanie Oswald, and Lindsay Page meticulously measure and tape the second bridge. Later, their group amended their design to maintain the overall slope of the bridges...well done.

Derek Winans, Tim Sanford, and Jordan Hodges fashion uniform posts from balsa wood to hold suspension "cables" on the third bridge.

Amanda Van Buren supports a bridge span while team members prepare braces.

Matt Masse, Maxx Byers, and Ryan Ball rework their initial bridge to accomodate its junction with the second bridge.

Group 4 anchors its suspension lines to an inverted chair. The block in the foreground was considered for an anchor at the alternative end, but it didn't pass muster.