Steve and the overweight bridge

So what was Steve doing nervously cutting way at a balsam bridge?  And why were those parents standing around looking nervous too?  Well to answer those questions you have to go all the way back to Steve's enrollment at Duck Creek elementary.  He was there because the Reeth's-Puffer Elementary building near us was too full to take him and since we had just moved to Muskegon MI from Terre Haute IN as a new student he got sent to Duck Creek.  Now Duck Creek was not a bad place to be, it was smaller and friendlier it seemed.  In fact the principal was very friendly and struck up a conversation with Sandy about the Odyssey of the Mind program which she thought was just the thing for Steve.  Of course there is always a catch to these things and in this case they needed a team leader for his group.  Somehow I got volunteered to be a team leader.  So what do you do when your spouse volunteers you for a school project that you know nothing about?  You volunteer for the project.  Soon I was reading the instructions for being an Odyssey of the Mind coach and it didn't make a lot of sense to me.  The kids had to come up with the ideas and carry out all the work for the project, the coach was there to help facilitate the process without telling them what to do.  I would liken it to teaching a group of kids how to drive a car but you as the instructor have to sit in the back seat and can only give hints about how to drive a car.  You tell the kids in the front seat things like- "You might find that a key will start the engine which is necessary to make the car move"  "Turning the steering wheel makes the car move from side to side on the road"  "Pushing on the gas pedal with the car in a forward gear makes it move forward"  "Stepping on the brake pedal slows the car down"  All the while realizing that the kids in the front seat don't know a brake pedal from a gas pedal and think that operating the radio while driving has a greater priority than steering the car.  So we spent our time playing word games that were supposed to build up the kids mental abilities then they could attack the problem they were required to solve, which was to build a wooden bridge under a certain weight that would span a certain distance and hold the maximum weight all while the group is engaged in some type of creative activity of their choice.  Time went on as we played word games and talked about ways to make strong bridges and they had no idea what to do for the creative activity.  One night I was absent from the group and one of the other group leaders took my place.  He was a teacher at the school and had two kids in my group.  He must have seen our desperate situation and somehow that night they came up with a creative activity to go along with the bridge being tested for strength.  They decided to put on a game show and with each wrong answer more weight would be put on the bridge.  Finally we had a goal to work towards and kids came up with costumes, props were built, and a script was written.  We even had a buzzer which I brought from home hoping it wasn't against the rules.  We got everything ready and went to the regional competition.  To our amazement the skit went well, there was suspense, the audience got into the game, and the bridge held quite a lot of weight with each wrong answer.  We ended up placing and going to State for the next level of competition.  Now we were really under pressure to perform, the next level would be much harder because the competition would be better.  By this point Steve had become the lone bridge builder and the rest of the kids were just part of the show.  We all knew the new bridge (the original one broke once it was overloaded) would have to be stronger.  So Steve used thicker wood and more supports to make it hold more weight all while keeping it under the required weight- or so we thought.  Somehow we did not have an accurate scale and when the bridge showed up at state competition it was over weight.  The only thing Steve could do was start shaving off wood and removing supports to make it light enough for the program.  We all watched nervously as Steve  peeled away piece after piece of his creation to make the bridge lighter.  Once the bridge passed the weight test we were free to put on the program.  Everyone got ready for the suspense as the game show started up- the first wrong question came and the first weight was put on the now legal bridge.  But the first weight was too much for the bridge and it was crushed immediately.  Too much cutting away at the bridge made it weak and now the show was over.  The kids just stood there not knowing how to end a skit that had only just started.  In a few seconds we all realized the skit was over, there was no reason to ask any more quiz questions because the bridge had collapsed on the first question so we were done.  So much for state competition.  So much for fame and placing Duck Creek Elementary on the kid genius map.  I breathed a sigh of relief, tried to hide my embarrassment and privately vowed to never volunteer for another program like this again.  Now as for Steve, apparently it did not dim his spirits too much because he went on to become a Mechanical Engineer, and who knows?  he may be designing the next light weight balsam bridge for an Upper Peninsula river at this moment.