ICA Update
Engineers' Alliance for the Arts Bridge Building Program
Thirteen years ago Gigi Torres,
who was a math teacher at ICA
Cristo Rey, accepted the invitation to
participate in the EAA Bridge Building
Program to expose our young ladies
to the fundamentals of engineering.
Initially, only our Pre-Calculus classes
were able to participate, but this
year the program was opened up
to students in the Problem Solving
class to expand the opportunity and
expose students a potential STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering
and Mathematics) career. Mrs. Mills,
one of our math teachers and head of
the bridge building program, wanted
to involve these students with the
hope that the project might spark
an interest in this field where there
is a dearth of women professionals.
At her first invitiation, the students
were reluctant to participate because
of the lack of confidence, but after
some urging they realized that they
wanted to prove it to themselves and
to others that they could accept the
challenge and complete the project
with success. Per Mrs. Mills, “They
(the students) said they wanted to
show the school that they could do it.
Within the next few days we had five
teams of five girls.”
Four engineers introduced the
25 young ladies to the basics of
engineering and what was going
to be necessary to build a bridge
for the competition. After that they
left it to the girls to complete the
task. Students choose from two
scenarios for bridge designs. They
learn how to do environmental
research, work and collaborate on
their engineering design, and then
build the model bridge. At the end
they write a reflective essay on the
experience and present their bridge
design at a competition held at
PG&E’s headquarters in downtown
San Francisco. This year’s scenario
choices were a bridge in Washington
D.C. or a bridge in London. Mrs. Mills
says, “All of the students wanted to
design a bridge for London, but we
settled on three bridges for London
and two for D.C. I was super excited
by the time they had completed their
project and presented their bridge
at PG&E. I wanted the girls to realize
that they could achieve whatever
they wanted, they could access
engineering and that math is not all
about numbers, it is about solving
problems. It is also a great exercise in
public speaking.”
Thanks to the structure of the
experience and Mrs. Mills’ vision,
she sees that our young ladies learn
lessons that stay with them once the
project is complete. “I want them
to have pride in their work, realize
there are many ways to accomplish
a goal, and learn how to work well
in groups. I also want to expose our
younger students to this so that if
they are interested in engineering,
this exposure could guide their math
career in high school.” This project
builds bridges literally and figuratively.
Our students see the physical result
of their hard work. But a more
important bridge is built between
questioning one’s ability and seeing
that it is possible to accomplish a
challenging task and doing it with
pride and confidence. Math can
often be associated with navigating
troubled waters, but fortunately Mrs.
Mills is finding a way to bridge those
troubled waters and having fun while
doing it! §
Summer 2016
15