Young Minds

Ah, young minds. So innocent and open. It's amazing to see what a kid can do with 20 sticks of spaghetti, a yard of string, a yard of masking tape and a marshmallow.

A structural engineer and I were invited to do a quick lesson for the STEM Institute (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) a couple weeks ago. We decided to go in together and show how Engineers and Architects work together.

We asked each group of about 15 students to work together in small teams to build the tallest structure that would hold a marshmallow at the top. Marshmallows are light, or so they seem...

We had a variety of structures and the tallest of the day that held the marshmallow for longer than 5 seconds was 19". Not too shabby for what they were given. What was great is that every student was aware that the triangle was the strongest shape and they all went for it in some capacity. The string was the least utilized, though one group was really close to figuring it out how to use it like cable on a suspension bridge.

The session gave us a lot of opportunity to explain simply how buildings stand up and how collaboration between disciplines makes it happen. I explained how an architect really can't get a whole lot done without a team of engineers helping to bring it all together and make a building function. The teams that performed the best worked together with each of them contributing in some capacity. It was a good reminder to myself what an important (and often difficult) job it is to keep all the parts running to eventually come together to one vision.

Interns aren't generally the conductor of the orchestra, but I have been given a number of opportunities in my time at Shive-Hattery to take a lead role and do my best to bring the group together. Luckily there is always a project architect looking over my shoulder. It's a role that I have really come to like; it's tough, but incredibly rewarding, especially when things go well.

The key is teamwork and constant collaboration. When those things are carried out in an orderly fashion things just seem to go better. 7th graders did it, we can too!