Collegio Online

Issue date: 1/31/08 Section: Front Page

Hannah Quinteros, right, a fifth-grade contestant in a PSU LEGO competition, holds a structure steady while her fellow contestants add more blocks.

Branon Thompson, grade 5, readjusts a piece of tinfoil on his LEGO tower.

To the untrained eye, it's a pile of LEGO blocks with curious tinfoil accents. To fifth-grader Branon Thompson, it's an amusement park, complete with a funhouse and onea of those rollercoaster simulators that used to be found in shopping mall foyers.

Branon's imagination won him first place overall in the first-ever PSU Block Kids contest, in which grade-schoolers competed to build the best structure out of a packet of materials including LEGO blocks, a rock, tinfoil, and pieces of string. The contest was held starting at noon on Saturday, Jan. 26, in the Kansas Technology Center.

"I'm excited!" said Branon, rocking back and forth restlessly, after winning the competition. Branon beamed over his project and his prize, a toolbox stuffed full of gift certificates and other goodies.

Branon finished his project - a perfectly symmetrical tower with delicate tinfoil details - in about 20 minutes, just a third of the time allotted.

Branon's father, Jeff Thompson, says Branon has never been in a contest like this before, but he has plenty of experience.
"He'll sit down with his LEGOs he has at home and in an hour he'll have five or six things (built)," Thompson said. "And he's always saying he wants to be an architect when he grows up."
Dennis Audo, the PSU construction technology instructor who spearheaded the local Block Kids contest, says that Branon's interest in architecture is a good sign that the contest has achieved its goals.

"It helps get (the kids) exposed to us in construction," Audo said.

Audo says that a group called the North American Women in Construction started the Block Kids competition nearly 20 years ago. This year, Audo, along with several other faculty members and students, decided to start a local competition.

Samantha Pinkal, a senior in construction management who helped judge the contest, says she was impressed with the kids' creativity.

"One girl - the girl who won in sixth grade - she made a multifamily homeless shelter," Pinkal said. "One girl made a cruise ship bridge."

Pinkal's comments echoed those of Audo: "They come up with some pretty imaginative stuff - they describe things in intimate detail."

Although Audo says this year's contest was successful, there's always room to grow. Only 18 kids participated in this year's contest, and Audo says he hopes to double that next year.
"I just wish we had more kids is all," Audo said. "But we've got to start somewhere."

Winners, listed by grade level, are as follows: First grade, Caleb Wiggins, first place, and Taylor O'Brien, second; Second grade, Cassie Hurt-McLarty, first place; Third grade, Lauren Eagon, first; Jacob Otter, second; Anthony Verga, third; Kindall Henning, fourth; and Jack Winzer, fifth; Fourth grade, Rose Kemper, first; Lyle Steinmiller, second; and Kalyn Bitner, third; Fifth grade, Branon Thompson, first; Damon Kellogg, second; Logan Mapes, third; Hannah Eagon, fourth; and Hannah Quinteros, fifth; and Sixth grade, Jill Otter, first place.
Overall winners were Branon Thompson, first; Rose Kemper, second; and Jill Otter, third.

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