The goal of this event is to design and construct a bridge using only pasta and glue prior to the tournament and bring it to the competition for testing. Each team may build and bring one pasta bridge. The objective is to achieve the highest structural efficiency by creating a bridge that is as light as possible while supporting the greatest amount of weight.

Resources

Straw Bridges – The Stem Laboratory (Great starter activity!)
Science Max | How to Make a Pasta Bridge
Pasta Bridge
What Makes Bridges So Strong? | Engineering for Kids | STEAM | SciShow Kids
Truss patterns
Triangles vs. Squares in Bridge Strength | Complete Science Fair Projects & STEM Projects
Science Olympiad Bridge Building 2015 Nationals
Bridge-a-roni Science Olympiad Noah Alba (Good overview of how event is run!)

FAQs

Have a question about an event? Check our 🔎 Event Intel: Coach Questions & Answers (coming soon) for answers to all event FAQs submitted by coaches. The document includes event-specific questions and clarifications and will be updated as additional questions are reviewed and answered.

Please check the FAQ document before submitting a new question – you may find your answer already there!