Scaffolding is Falling Down
by Arlen M.
2nd Place - Engineering

Question: What kind of scaffolding is stronger - metal or bamboo?

Hypothesis: My hypothesis was bamboo was stronger than metal.

Analysis: What I observed when doing my experiment is bamboo scaffolding A collapsed at 125 Ibs and bamboo scaffolding B collapsed at 100 Ibs. Metal scaffoldings A and B will not collapse. What I noticed about the bamboo scaffolding is it collapsed because of the way I set it up. The weight from the bricks made the legs of the scaffolding bend, until the bricks fell off.

Discovery: My hypothesis was wrong, so it turns out metal scaffolding is stronger than bamboo scaffolding.