Spaghetti bridges hold up to the weight while introducing engineering to high school students

ESSEX, Md. - As a way to show off their newly learned engineering skills, students at Eastern Technical High School showed that spaghetti has surprising strength.

60 students were at the Essex high school to put their spaghetti bridges to the test as the culmination of the four-week Summer Engineering Innovation Program put together by Johns Hopkins University.

For the last three weeks of the program, students have designed and built their bridges using no more than half a pound of spaghetti and glue. The goal: to have their bridges hold as much weight as possible.

The winning weight was 83.6 pounds. In past years, bridges have held 130 to 150 pounds.

The summer program by Johns Hopkins University as a way to introduce engineering to high school students who usually aren't introduced to it in science classes or any other way in school prior to making a decision on a collegiate path.

The program takes place in California, Pennsylvania, and Maryland which has most of the sites.