Calatrava Student Constructors
Students Build Model of Margaret Hunt Hill
Bridge at
Calatrava Student Constructors Workshop
| The Calatrava Student Constructors marched in the Parade of Builders for the opening of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. | Simon Cohen, one of the student constructors, talks about the workshop at TEDxKids @SMU 2011. | |||||||
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Twelve talented and gifted students from local public and private
schools were selected to participate with
The Trinity Trust,
in partnership with SMU’s Talented
and Gifted Program and
Summer Youth Program, to become engineers for a day and to construct
a replica of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge with cables and roads. On the
morning of the Engineering Workshop, students and their parents were
given an exclusive hard-hat tour of the construction site of the
Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. Rebecca Rasor of the City of Dallas, and Jim
McTaggart of VSL (in charge of stringing the cables) shared with them
what it’s like to build the first Santiago Calatrava-designed vehicular
cable stayed bridge in the U.S. During the ensuing workshop, students built a study-model of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, using a STEM (Science Technology Engineering & Math) framework. Instructor David Abbondanzio of The Study Center, Inc., who teaches in the Plano-based SMU Summer Youth Program, led the class in building a study-model 1/66 in scale. During the construction process, the students learned how the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge works by building the roads, the signature arch piece, and the 58 cables. The completed model is 20 feet long and more than 6 feet high. The model is currently a part of the Meadows Museum exhibition "Calatrava and SMU: A Decade in Motion." The events of the workshop were documented by award-winning Producer Judy Kelly, whose video feature will be a learning/teaching tool available for area schools as the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge opens in March 2012. The student constructors joined
the bridge builders on March 3 for the Parade of Builders at the
celebration marking the bridge's opening. Led by bridge architect,
Santiago Calatrava, the students joined the procession of hundreds of
workers, engineers and community leaders who played a part in the
bridge's construction. |
 Photograph by Corinne Robinson |
 Photograph by Kim Ritzenthaler |
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| Photograph by Kim Ritzenthaler | Photograph by Kim Ritzenthaler |
Click here to play a short clip of the video produced from this workshop.
The Gifted Students Institute
Southern Methodist University
PO Box 750383
Dallas, TX 75275-0383
Phone: 214-768-4383
Fax: 214-768-3147
gifted@smu.edu