Shades Cahaba builds bridges

Each year the fifth graders at Shades Cahaba Elementary School have an opportunity to participate in an academic bridge building unit of study. This year, an architect from Davis Architects partnered with each class to help the students in designing, drawing blueprints and building the bridges. In addition, Davis Architects provided all of the materials and gave a $100 donation to the three winning teams’ charity of choice.

The bridges were tested to see which team built the strongest one. Team CRAB from Leigh Eaton’s class won by holding 13 pounds. They selected to donate their money to Caroline Wilson, a Shades Cahaba student who was injured during the school year.

The school thanks Davis Architects, the five architects who attended at least two class periods per week while working on this unit of study, and Mayor Scott McBrayer for being one of the judges for this event.