During Spring 2018, Penn State Brandywine hosted a CanstructionU competition thanks to the funding and support provided by the Pepsi Challenge Mini-Grants, which focused on expanding the Sustainable Communities Collaborative at The Pennsylvania State University.
Using the CanstructionU model from Canstruction, Inc., the campus began its own university event with announcements during the January 23rd Sustainovation Club meeting. Information was provided to members of the campus in attendance, and as a result of these efforts, as well as the participation of our faculty and staff, eight teams entered the competition.
The students in these teams developed designs and acquired the cans necessary to create their structures, which were then displayed in the Lower Level of the Student Union Building from April 15th to April 19th. Once the events wrapped up, the cans were then delivered to the Media Food Bank.
As part of the competition, the structures were judged in order to find the Best in Structural Ingenuity, Best Meal, Best Use of Labels, and Judge’s Choice. Additionally, teams were given a chance to take home an award for the Campus Advisory Board’s Honorable Mention as well as the Sustainovation Committee’s Award to the team whose structure best represented sustainability and innovation. Finally, the entire campus community, on campus and off, were able to vote online for People’s Choice.
To see each team’s canstruction, visit the People’s Choice site, which includes pictures of the structure, a description of the team’s purpose, and a link to the research and intent behind each structure.
In the end, 2,275 cans of food were secured for the Media Food Bank, which assists families in our region, especially in the late spring and summer when many kids are home and do not have access to school breakfast and lunch programs. At this time, schools do not conduct school-run food drives, either, which made this an ideal time to provide this wonderful organization with these items.
The winners of the awards listed above can be found here; however, while the competition element was undoubtedly fun and allowed the students to exercise skills in art, design, construction, and engineering, we know that they always kept in mind that the real purpose of this endeavor was to help our community. As mentioned by Dr. Phillips during our Spring 2018 kick-off, our hope is that those who visit the Media Food Bank will be relieved of worry over getting food and will be able to focus on sustainability for themselves and their own future.
The CanstructionU event help on campus at Penn State Brandywine during Spring 2018 supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #2 – Zero Hunger and Goal #10 – Reduced Inequalities.
We would like to note that additional goals were specifically targeted by individual groups, which included the following:
