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Lee Early College students learned impressive lessons about the relevance of geometry to everyday life when teachers Jenna Rice and Whitney Coon had their classes build weight-bearing bridges using gumdrops and toothpicks. During the building, (from left) student Frida Rodriguez, geometry teacher Whitney Coon, and students Jerry Pineda and Dulce Galvez examine their bridge. The students discovered that congruent triangles are best for distributing weight and maintaining a bridge's strength and stability.

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Lee Early College students learned impressive lessons about the relevance of geometry to everyday life when teachers Jenna Rice and Whitney Coon had their classes build weight-bearing bridges using gumdrops and toothpicks. The team of (from left) Meredith Murphy, Patrick Yarnell, Ryan Bell, Toni Szabo, Ella Ventura and Josh Norman piled 17 classroom workbooks on their bridge before it collapsed. The students were learning what geometric shapes work best for weight bearing. Congruent triangles won.

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Lee Early College students learned impressive lessons about the relevance of geometry to everyday life when teachers Jenna Rice and Whitney Coon had their classes build weight-bearing bridges using gumdrops and toothpicks. Winning team member Carr Schwegler (crouching, right) watches with excitement and Jacob Brannan (behind workbooks) keeps an eye on the increasing stack as Mariana Olvera (out of picture, right) piles a total of 42 classroom workbooks on their gumdrops and toothpicks bridge of congruent triangles to win the competition. Classmate Chris Foxx (back) watches with interest as the books are piled on.