- JUSTIN: Previously on Shop Class... - FEMALE VOICE: Feel the power.
Each team is gonna have to design and build
your very own skate park obstacle.
- Yeah. - JUSTIN: Huh?
- MALE VOICE: All right. - Whoa.
And the winning team is... the Green Team.
- (CHEERING) - No way.
JUSTIN: Lance, Chloe, and Selah earned an A for their skate park obstacle,
and are advancing to the semi-finals.
- Now, three new teams take the spotlight. - Slowly, slowly, slowly.
- Whoa. - Let's just go surfing.
JUSTIN: To turn a spool of rope, a pile of wood and glue into engineering marvels.
- Okay. What are we looking at? - A bridge.
JUSTIN: Then, we'll put their builds through the ultimate stress test...
- Careful. - Whoops. Ah!
JUSTIN: ...by piling on the pounds.
You just hit 2,000 pounds.
We did it. Yes.
- (ALL CLAMORING) - (WOOD CRACKING)
- (THUDS) - (MUSIC PLAYING)
- MALE VOICE: Whoa. - What? Oh, my gosh.
- BOY: Whoa. - BOY 2: Pretty cool.
- MALE VOICE: This is awesome. - Wow. Look over there.
They got a drafting table. This place is legit. (CHUCKLES)
Um, so, the magnitude of what was going on hit me when I walked through the door.
This place is so awesome, I just cannot wait to start building.
All right. I think I got it. Here we go.
- (TEAMS APPLAUDING, CHEERING) - JUSTIN: Hey.
- Everybody welcome to Shop Class. Hi. - ALL: Hi.
(LAUGHS)
Three teams have come to compete, but only one team, one,
will conquer and move on.
The winning team will advance to the semifinal round,
and be one step closer to earning the title of Shop Class Champs.
- We're gonna get that. - We got the Gold Team.
My name is Anneka. I am 13 years old, and I love woodworking.
My name is Ethan. I'm 13 years old.
I love building 'cause it's just so much fun.
My name is Alan and I am a shop teacher.
- I teach kids how to code and make things. - Next up is the Blue Team.
My name is Henry. I'm 11 years old and I like aeronautical engineering.
I'm Gabriel. I'm 14 years old and I love robotics.
I'm Morgan. I'm a wood shop teacher here in Los Angeles
and at Beam Camp in New Hampshire.
And rounding things off is the Green Team.
Hi, I'm Sonny. I'm 13 years old and I love to woodwork.
Hey, I'm Olivia, and I'm 13, and I love designing and building.
I'm Caleb. I'm a woodworking teacher in Santa Barbara.
Ethan, uh, question.
What's your plan for taking home the win?
Well, I'm just gonna work with these two and try my best.
- So, let them do most of the work? - (LAUGHS)
That's actually a really good attitude.
Teamwork, right? Rely on the help from one another.
Well, before we put your talents to the test,
let's meet the skilled panel of judges,
who will decide which build is top of the class.
- Judges, please. - (TEAMS CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
- What's up, Justin? - Sweet walkout, bro.
- BROOKS: Thanks. Thanks. - First up is an award-winning maker
- and architect, Mr. Brooks Atwood. - Hi, guys. Hey. How's it going?
Our next judge is an interior designer and home decor expert, Lauren Makk.
- Hi. - (TEAMS APPLAUDING)
And finally, please welcome guest judge, Walt Disney Imagineer, Jeremie Papon.
Hi, everybody.
I'm Jeremie Papon and I'm a Walt Disney Imagineer.
I work here at Research and Development.
What I focus on mainly is artificial intelligence,
computer vision, and robotics.
You guys ready to find out what you're building?
- ALL: Yeah. - JUSTIN: All right.
Teachers, grab a pushcart, and bring it back to your station please.
I see all that stuff under the cart. It's a lot of material.
So I know we're building something big, which is exciting.
Okay. I love this part. Are you ready to pull the tarp?
- Yes, yes, yes, we are. - Yes. One, two, three, pull the tarps.
- Wow. - Wow.
- MORGAN: Oh, okay. - JUSTIN: We got some exciting stuff.
We got a large spool of rope, glue, bunch of wood.
Uh, any ideas? Okay. I'll give you a hint.
We take them for granted, yet they're engineering marvels
- that must stand the test of time. - Our parents?
We take them... Yep, our parents. Good guess, Anneka.
Not your parents. But you're building your very own...
- bridge. - Yeah.
I'm basically a bridge master. So, we've got this covered.
- (OLIVIA CHUCKLES) - Fives.
Yeah, dude. Nice.
For this challenge, each team must design and build a bridge that is eye-catching...
spans ten feet and can support 500 pounds of weight.
Each bridge will be weight-tested,
and you'll have just three full days to build your bridge.
- SONNY: Wow. - CALEB: No way.
- That's cool. - (EXHALES)
I built a bridge in seventh grade, and it did not go well.
So, if you could pick the thing that would give me the most grief,
this would be it.
The winning team will move on to the semi-finals,
and be one step closer to the championship.
- Okay. Teams, are you ready? - ALL: Yes!
Let's get building.
As an Imagineer, we're always trying to tell a story with what we create.
So that's very important, but I also love to see a strong technical backing
to everything we do, and that requires precision,
attention to detail,
and really thinking through what you're trying to build
before you even start building.
- All right. Let's go. Get the wax pencils. - HENRY: Ready? Okay.
CALEB: All right. Let's go. Let's design it.
The dream of an interior designer is to create something
that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing.
And that's what I'm looking for in these bridges today.
They obviously have to withstand a lot of weight,
but they gotta look good doing it.
So, basically, what I was thinking for the design is, we could use the rope
to make, like, the handles.
OLIVIA: My idea, it's kind of like, I guess, the shape of a trapezoid,
- with crosshatches. - Oh, we could do that, too.
I like the designs the students came up with.
We all kind of had slightly different ideas.
- Yeah. - Maybe we can kind of combine
- all three of these. - BROOKS: This is my kind of challenge.
Always with my students, I would give them 1000 toothpicks and say,
"Here, support this one brick." That's the first project
that they give you in architecture school.
And it's mind-blowing because you're just like,
"How am I gonna support this super heavy brick with these tiny little toothpicks?"
That's exactly what the teams are doing,
and I can't wait to see what they're coming up with.
- I like it. - Instead of the Golden Gate, uh, Bridge
- being red, we're gonna make it green. - OLIVIA: That would be good.
We've decided to build kind of like a mix between a suspension bridge
and a truss bridge, and a lot of different arches,
and crosshatching. And all sorts of rope involved.
- SONNY: It's like the Golden Gate Bridge. - But better. It's gonna be better.
I'm thinking an arch, which we can do with the wood.
We'll have little pieces of wood sticking out like that,
and then we'll have supports going like that.
- ALAN: Mm-hmm. - I know one called the Warren truss.
We could try to make something like that.
That's a great idea. What if we did one of these, like a truss bridge,
- but had it arced. - ETHAN: Okay.
So we've decided to make an arched bridge with a truss stabilizer,
and then rope hanging down from multiple poles to keep it up.
So, I'm thinking that we make a bridge...
- This is just a really rough thing. But... - I was think... I was thinking a truss.
- Truss is a good idea. - Warren truss.
But we could go like this, and then an arch underneath.
Truss bridges are actually very strong. They're used actually for railroads.
GABRIEL: We could, like, make a combination of the two,
- just like we have support on top... - That's a good idea.
- With a Warren... - ...support on the bottom,
an arch down here, and then we can reinforce this.
- Boom. That's an amazing strategy. - Bam, that's our design.
Gabriel and Henry both had some different ideas
about the best way to do it, and we sort of combined them together.
JUSTIN: Blue Team lands on a combination design plan
making a part truss, part arched bridge.
This is X, X, X, radical two, and this is one, one, one, radical two.
Gabriel's a Little League all-star in the baseball diamond.
I would say that I am competitive
because I love competing in robotics tournaments,
uh, where my team placed second in the state competition.
- MORGAN: Can I make a suggestion, guys? - HENRY: Yeah.
MORGAN: If we wanna keep it symmetrical, maybe it makes sense to pretend
like there's verticals, even for now, and then we can remove them.
JUSTIN: The teams are hyper-focused, so it's time for me to check in
and try not to waste too much of their time.
How's it going?
- Good. - Sonny, Caleb.
Tell me what's going on here?
SONNY: Well, we're gonna make this kind of like the Golden Gate Bridge.
Except we believe this one's gonna be better than Golden Gate Bridge.
It's gonna be better.
Instead of it being red, we're gonna make it green.
- Are you that confident in this? - SONNY: Yeah.
Well, say what you will about Team Green, they're ambitious.
- Right, Son? Y? - Yep.
(ALL CHUCKLE)
- Okay, cool. All right. Thanks, Sonny. - Boom.
- We don't do that. No. - We don't do that? Okay, sorry.
- Neither do I. I was testing you. - Yeah, yeah.
- And you passed. - Mm-hmm.
Cool. All right. I'll see you guys.
- Bye, buddy. - All right.
- So, we figured out what we needed. - Okay, so...
Uh, have you guys built bridges before?
- Mm-hmm. - You have?
- It was a competition at my school. - Ooh. And how'd you do?
First place.
You got first place at a bridge building competition, huh?
Wow. Well, interesting.
I'm excited to see how those ingredients are gonna come together.
It's gonna be a delicious jambalaya of creativity.
Well, I'll let you get back to it. Thank you so much.
You're welcome, just...
JUSTIN: How did you come up with this design?
Actually, I came in with the arch bridge idea.
He, um, came in with the truss bridges idea.
- Oh. - And it's...
- So you combined it. - GABRIEL: It's gonna be
a lot stronger like that.
- You seem confident moving forward? - Oh, yeah.
- Oh, yeah. This could hold a 1000 pounds. - Whoa. Wait a minute.
- (TEAM MEMBERS CHUCKLE) - Let's up the ante.
You guys have been called out. Gabe is saying his can hold a 1000 pounds.
- Ours could hold 1,500 pounds. - What?
- "Fifteen," says Sonny. - (ALL CHUCKLE)
Well, I don't know how this ends. But, um, it was fun. Okay.
All right, I'll see you guys.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
Yes. It's a build.
Let's look at our plan one more time, make sure we're all on the same page.
ETHAN: We stake our claim here.
CALEB: I'm gonna cut the...
- Yeah. - ...cut list for the platform.
JUSTIN: As a general contractor and shop teacher,
Green Team may have an advantage, since Caleb
works with wood on an everyday basis.
I was gonna take these out, and if they're fairly straight,
I was just gonna cut 'em. If they're not,
I was gonna plane 'em so they're nice and flat.
I talked to the team about milling all the two-by-twos,
because the edges, none of 'em were perfectly flat.
And so, milling it is making it have flat surfaces,
so when you glue 'em together, there's no gaps.
JUSTIN: When Caleb isn't teaching woodworking, he keeps busy...
This is all out of, uh, reclaimed or recycled wood.
JUSTIN: ...by building furniture, and spending time with his four kids.
This one's straight.
This one's so crooked. Look at this one.
Uh, crooked? Oh, dang, that's bad.
We can't have crooked wood or the whole bridge would be crooked.
What we're doing right now is we're setting up, so that way
you guys can take this rope, and we can drop it,
so we can get the shape because a good way to determine
what arch we need is just to let the rope hang under its own weight.
ANNEKA: We gotta work fast, guys.
- (MACHINERY WHIRRING) - (MUSIC PLAYING)
MORGAN: What if we tried some shorter screws so we need less torque?
Okay.
That's perfect. So, that'll hold it while it glues.
In order to stay on time, we're trying to glue together
all of our bottom structures.
Henry, do you wanna do the glue this time?
Sure.
I like your glue style a lot. (CHUCKLES)
Henry, the artistic.
I like being glue guy.
Can never have enough wood glue.
JUSTIN: Green Team and Blue Teams have already started their builds.
But the Gold Team is back to working on their arch measurements.
ALAN: Uh, the cosine of 30 is 0.866.
This is a lot to take in, but... but he's a really good teacher.
JUSTIN: Alan holds a degree in mechanical engineering.
One of the things I love about being a maker is the idea
to take something out of my mind and make it real.
JUSTIN: And also teaches 3D printing, electronics, and robotics classes
in his local community.
- (MACHINERY WHIRRING) - (MUSIC PLAYING)
- HENRY: Line up right there. - ALAN: Sine is equal to one half.
GABRIEL: We are not the Blue Team now, we are the Glue Team.
Here we go, all right, uh, this should be enough to get us started.
SONNY: This is the perfect color.
JUSTIN: Teams are more than halfway through the first build day.
And Judge Lauren stops by to check in on the teams' progress.
- You wanna tell me about your bridge? - So, we're calling this a Combine Bridge.
It's just a combination of two types of bridges.
It's a mix of a truss and an arch bridge.
Okay, gotcha. Well, I'm really glad to see you guys using the truss bridge.
It's one of the strongest types of bridges.
And that triangular shape is super solid.
- How are you gonna make this look good? - Yeah, we haven't thought about that yet.
You want it to function more than you want it to look good?
Yeah, like, hey, if it holds over 500 pounds,
I'd be more happy about that than if it breaks and it's pretty.
Fair enough. Well, make it look pretty for me, baby.
- Yes. - Okay?
- We'll make it super pretty. - All right. Cool.
I notice you've got green paint on your face already.
- What's going on over here? - Yeah. So basically what we're thinking of
is making pieces of the two-by-twos
this color green, I was experimenting with colors.
Yeah, you could even tell a story with your bridge.
I was thinking about making little cars because green means "go"
- and we're gonna go across the bridge. - Okay. I like that.
I like a little, you know, like a little razzle-dazzle.
- We're gonna go to the semifinal. - Tell a story.
- That's where we're trying to go. - There you go. (CHUCKLES)
Along with the design, like, visually, we're thinking about
- doing a two-tone stain. - LAUREN: Wow.
- We'll do dark and light. - Oh, well, excusez moi.
And I love that you're using the rope, too. That's a big deal.
All right, guys. Well, good luck.
- Thanks. - You're gonna need it. (CHUCKLES)
She likes the idea about the two-tone stain.
- ETHAN: I think we should try rustic. - I'm down with that.
Overall, I am so excited to see what these teams have cooked up.
They've got some really ambitious builds,
and I really hope they can pull it off, especially in three days.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
MORGAN: Double efficiency. Beautiful.
We're gonna take the mini piece of this one, flip it over,
and then we're gonna intersect it
- with the base here. - ETHAN: Okay.
- SONNY: This one's crooked. - (GROANS)
Got it.
You can look and see if you like...
the aesthetic of the square top or the diagonal.
With the amount of time that we have left so far out of these three days,
I think it's possible for us to make a really good bridge.
and Caleb's really nice. He's been teaching me a lot of new things,
and he's really helped our team come together.
I'm gonna trust your judgment.
So, what you guys think looks best, I'm happy to do.
- Okay. Perfect. - Awesome.
JUSTIN: With day one coming to an end,
Gold Team is concerned about time but staying optimistic.
- We're a little behind on the schedule, - We're behind. Yeah, we're behind.
We did a little too much math, a little bit of mis-measuring.
So we planned most of it out, so I feel like getting it done now
will be really fast.
We go most of the assembly done for the bottom.
We still have to put the slats in, but that's, I think, the easy part.
Now that we have a flow going, uh, we're gonna get faster with our time.
We're definitely a little bit ahead, but I think we still have a lot
- of work to do. - Oh. You think we're ahead? That's good.
I was worried because I'm like,
"I'm not even done planing
and people are gluing their boards together."
I'm not sure how this is possibly gonna get done,
but I think their excitement mixed with maybe my caution will be a good balance.
Ready to go get some rest and tackle it all again tomorrow?
- Yep. - Yeah.
High-fives.
One of my favorite parts of being an Imagineer
is being able to build these experiences and give them to people.
When you go to the park and you see these things,
and they come to life, you kind of get lost
and you become a child again, no matter what age you are.
And I love seeing that experience that people have
- with the things that we build. - (MUSIC PLAYING)
Today is our second day of building,
and we have gotten some of our large timbers
all laminated together.
Right now, we're assembling the first side of our bridge.
ALAN: What we hope to accomplish for today is having the arch done
and having the posts done. We've gotten, I think, just about all the pieces,
uh, cut to put together the arch.
CALEB: And I already feel so much better about today
'cause yesterday was a lot of prep
and I left thinking, "We're never gonna finish."
But that's not how I feel anymore.
We have to use four of these.
We're gonna try and finish the truss section first,
before we start on the arc.
But if we don't finish cutting all of our wood today,
- we're gonna be very far behind. - (MACHINERY WHIRRING)
ANNEKA: I want to get the side pieces done
try to get kind of the steps done, and if possible, get the trusses done.
JUSTIN: With the baseboard of their bridge nearly complete,
Olivia and Sonny start preparing the supports.
OLIVIA: Now, we gotta untangle it. Because we need two pieces of ten feet,
and then I think we needed like a few of five feet.
Yesterday, we were thinking we might not have enough time
to complete our bridge, but now, we're feeling
way ahead of schedule, and we're really ready.
So, you start untangling that end, and I'll untangle this one.
SONNY: Okay. Kind of Lady and the Tramp.
OLIVIA: Yeah. (CHUCKLES)
SONNY: Me and Olivia, we're really strong with each other.
There's no complaining. We're just good to go.
We're so close.
- OLIVIA: We made it! We did it. - Yes.
JUSTIN: Sonny enjoys skateboarding...
I build skate ramps because I think it's really awesome
that I am able to create something, and other people can use it.
...and plans on being an architect when he grows up.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
What we can do is, uh...
HENRY: Oh, yeah.
- ANNEKA: Like an arrow. - Okay. Actually, hold up. (GROANS)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
- It's hot out there? - No. I'm just freaking out.
I'm honestly having some flashbacks to seventh grade
when I had a bridge project, and it did not go well.
So I do feel a little... a little... (SHRIEKS)
...about, you know, about this bridge.
I mean, it's either gonna go really, really awesome, or it's gonna go bad.
But my team, yeah, they're looking up to me,
and I'm definitely feeling the pressure.
JUSTIN: While Alan attempts to manage his anxiety,
Green Team discovers a miscalculation
that would have most builders pretty concerned.
- How did we get... - (INDISTINCT CHATTER)
Today, Olivia pointed out that half of our scale drawing
was to a one square equals a foot
and the other half was one square equals six inches.
We drew half of it right and the other half wrong,
so it's not correct.
- But luckily, the platform's pretty... - The platform's fine,
which is what most of our work has been.
We have to adjust that, so I'm worried.
But as long as we execute it, uh, each step fully, I think we'll be good.
- (MACHINERY WHIRRING) - (INDISTINCT CHATTER)
I think our bridge is gonna be good because it's a mix of an arc bridge
and a truss bridge, the two are...
They're two of the strongest bridges in the world.
JUSTIN: Blue Team is almost done completing the truss of the bridge,
but they haven't even started on one very important part.
We haven't started the undercarriage part at all, the sort of arched part,
but I think we're mostly there.
JUSTIN: Morgan comes from a family of educators.
So you have the drill press, very useful, scroll saws, drills.
Her father teaches shop class and her mother teaches art.
(ELECTRIC SAW WHIRRING)
Perfect. All right. That one, and then I have to do that one.
You want to measure it?
Our bridge is supposed to be very structural,
but also very modern and simple.
And we have one wall finished, but we're still working on the other one.
JUSTIN: Green Team came up short with their measurements,
but is back on track with one wall up and one wall to go.
ETHAN:
ALAN: All right.
ETHAN: I feel like the most challenging thing about this build
is trying to complete everything before the time ends.
But I know if we get it stabilized, if we can make it hold a lot of weight,
and if it just looks really good, we can make it to the semi-finals.
JUSTIN: Ethan plays volleyball and soccer, as well as the drums.
This is the first thing I ever made when I was ten years old.
I made it at my grandpa's shop.
- I keep my homemade dominoes in it. - He also sings in an acapella group.
Gold Team has picked up some steam, but they have a ton left to complete,
and only one day to do it.
We needed just to get the arch almost perfect,
but now everything should go a lot quicker
because we just have to drill pieces in.
Yeah, the day went really well. We finished both sides,
and we're now trying to lift them by the end of the day
and attach them with a couple pieces
so they can dry as an actual bridge.
So at the beginning of the day, we wanted to get the floor all glued together,
which happened and looks amazing.
We had a little bit of a delay, but we still ended up
accomplishing everything, and I think it looks better than I anticipated.
We'll just put the pedal to the metal and make it happen.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
- MORGAN: Ready, guys? - HENRY: Let's get this show on the road.
CALEB: All right, so...
I have to make another one of these still, for this side.
- Yeah. - And we have to decide
if we're putting anything in the middle.
I haven't done anything on the bottom yet either.
It's the last day, and we're feeling really great.
I'm not worried about the Blue and the Gold Team. Green means go,
and we're going to the semi-finals.
JUSTIN: Olivia holds multiple academic excellence awards...
This is my robotics engineering notebook that my team and I worked on.
JUSTIN: ...and is a robotics engineer who helped earn her team a design award
in her local school district.
Our game plan for today is to finish the bridge.
Um, but to do that, what we're gonna need to do is,
we're gonna need to finish our truss.
Our truss, our kind of actual bridge portion here.
We're gonna need to get our posts, uh, set up properly and get those supported.
It's the last day and I'm feeling nervous, enthusiastic, hyper, freaked out,
uh, grateful, happy.
Uh, I'm running out of adjectives.
Make sure that we're lined up. Okay?
We were trying to get this arch finished yesterday, and we didn't.
So we're gonna get it done today.
JUSTIN: Anneka excels in the classroom and on the soccer field.
- I made one of these a little while ago. - JUSTIN: Straight As in her honors classes
and was named MVP of her team.
HENRY: Slowly, slowly, slowly. Phew!
I want the judges to see our bridge, and look at it, and go, "Wow."
So I think we have to finish the bottom section
if we even want to get a small wow out of them.
JUSTIN: When Henry is not in his treehouse...
This is the kind of stuff I like to build 'cause they're big
and they're useful and they're fun.
JUSTIN: ...he likes to compete in pinewood derby races,
- and has won three first place medals. - (MUSIC PLAYING)
Don't worry, it's... Whoops. Ah! All right, we good? All right.
JUSTIN: The teams are in the final assembly stages,
and Disney Imagineer Jeremie drops in to talk form and function.
This bridge is beautiful.
Have you tested it out at all?
- GABRIEL: No, we have not. - HENRY: No, not really.
JEREMIE: Okay. As an engineer, I think it's important to test things.
So, how did you divide up the labor to work on it?
- He's the glue man. - You're the glue man?
I call myself Glue Guy.
How are you applying it? With this guy?
No, actually this is our putty that we made to fill any holes.
It's sawdust and glue.
JEREMIE: That's a really good idea, putting the glue and the sawdust together.
The truss that the Blue Team did is really impressive,
but you never know how things are gonna pan out
until you actually put them in place and test them in the real world.
We're trying to represent the Golden Gate Bridge.
- Got it. - CALEB: And then we put the diagonal,
just to make it a little more sturdy.
One thing I'm wondering is, if you added additional triangular braces,
so th... Because otherwise I feel like it might be...
These might be a little long for the length of the bridge.
- CALEB: Okay. - I really like the Green Team's design.
They added a lot of weight though on the bridge, on the structure there.
And I think they might need just a little bit of extra support
to watch out for that torsion they might get.
We'll take some more of Jeremie's advice
and add a little bit more support underneath the bridge.
ALAN: We've already got the main supports in on each side.
Um, and so, it's really just getting the base, getting that squared up,
uh, and then, attaching the posts.
ANNEKA: Those are going to be sticking up on all four corners of our arch.
When are you gonna do the final coat of paint?
- Stain. - Oh, paint.
Stain. Oh, you're gonna stain it. Nice.
I mean, you're down to a few hours here now.
You know what they say, slow and steady wins the race.
Yeah. Sometimes things come together just at the last minute.
The Gold Team bit off maybe a little more than they could chew there.
Arches are really quite difficult to do and really put together well,
but it's a strong structure,
so we'll have to see how it pans out for them.
- Careful. - ALAN: And look at that, it didn't break.
Whoa. Long board. Let's just go surfing.
I think my favorite part of our bridge is the base because of how secure
and how strong it is, and I'm very, very confident that it's gonna hold
way more than 500 pounds.
JUSTIN: Team Green has completed all portions of their bridge,
except for adding the rope supports.
MORGAN: Are we lined up on your end, Henry?
- HENRY: Good. - MORGAN: It looks good, guys.
I think that's probably gonna be about good enough.
No matter what, we're gonna finish.
- We have to. - We have to.
Uh, we got the bases. We're gonna square that off.
We're gonna mount the posts,
and then we're gonna tie some rope. Everything after that is gravy.
- I mean, it's supporting this. - Yeah.
- That's something. - (ALAN CHUCKLES)
JUSTIN: With only two hours left, Gold Team's arch is complete,
but they still have to add the posts, rope support
and stain the entire structure.
SONNY: Yeah, this is gonna be funny with the cars.
Tiny little convertibles or something like that.
We're basically building a bridge that the cars are gonna have to cross,
so we're making a green car, a blue, and a yellow,
but the blue and the yellow are gonna break down while
the green car goes straight to the semifinal.
I'm going to place down these stencils and stencil out letters.
Team Blue has decided to name our bridge Cerulean Pass.
It's a type of blue.
I ran out of space, so I'm gonna improvise.
Well, I finally started sanding the bridge.
It's a good thing, too. We're running out of time.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
- Teams, 30 minutes to go. - (OLIVIA GROANS)
Oh, God. No, no, no, no, no!
- CALEB: Oh, my gosh. - OLIVIA: We can do it. We can do it.
ALAN: Okay. Right here. Hold it right here. Is it... Is it right?
- Yeah. - Okay.
Okay. Next post.
We can take the rope, and make an X underneath the bridge,
and that X will be able to support a lot of weight.
- ALAN: Okay. - I need more rope.
SONNY: Perfect. That's good.
JUSTIN: There may be a slight bump in the road
that threatens Sonny and Olivia's perfect partnership.
OLIVIA:
Well, if it was a real highway, it would have to be yellow
because two crossed yellow sections means that you can't cross here.
And for the white, it means... We're gonna make two lanes on each side,
- which has to be white. - Maybe I shouldn't have left
the road design to two preteens who don't drive.
OLIVIA: Yeah, here, white is split and dotted white.
- Are you serious? - Yeah. Dotted white is just between lanes,
and yellow... Dotted yellow is between carpool,
and solid yellow is you can't cross carpool.
That's so crazy because this used to be yellow and this was white.
I mean, I've never driven a car,
so I don't know how a road's supposed to look like.
That looks like a bridge to a pirate ship.
- It is. - ALAN: It is. Argh!
It is.
I mean, at this point we got our bridge standing,
and I do enjoy the surprise of it.
All of a sudden, it kinda comes up and you're like, "Wait a minute. What?"
Like, "Where did that come from? Weren't you guy...
"Weren't you guys behind? Weren't you guys, like..."
You know, we're doing all... And then, whoop, whoop, whoop!
CALEB:
I mean, it's... it's no fun if they see you coming.
- Ten, nine, eight... - CALEB: Hurry, hurry, hurry.
- JUSTIN: ...seven, six... - MORGAN: Get this side.
- ANNEKA: We can do it, we can do it. - JUSTIN: ...five, four...
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER} - JUSTIN: ...three, two, one.
Tools down.
- ANNEKA: We did it. - (INDISTINCT CHEERING)
MORGAN: It's been a pleasure.
Welcome, builders.
(ALL CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
Congratulations for these beautiful builds in three days.
- ANNEKA: Thank you. - Anneka, what was the best part for you?
What... What was the most positive experience?
Yesterday, just throwing everything together.
- JUSTIN: Mm-hmm. - ANNEKA: And it worked
- because it's a pirate ship bridge. - (INDISTINCT CHATTER)
JUSTIN: Yargh!
LAUREN: Yar!
- JUSTIN: That's really cool. - JEREMIE: Pirates.
These are truly whoa.
Gold Team, you guys are up first. Let's raise your bridge.
- (TEAM MEMBERS CHEERING, WHISTLING) - (INDISTINCT CHATTER)
Alan, behold the Golden Team Bridge.
- There we go. - JUSTIN: Okay. What are we looking at?
- A bridge. - Thank you, Anneka. I set you up.
I knew you were gonna say that, because you're funny.
Alan, talk me through your bridge, from design to final build.
What are we looking at?
The core part of our design here was the arch.
Uh, we know that arches are naturally strong structures,
- but they're hard to get right. - I think it's pretty sound.
We put a lot of effort into it
and created different things to help support the weight.
JUSTIN: We're gonna take a closer look at Gold Team's bridge...
- BROOKS: Cool, let's do it. - ...and, uh, examine it up close.
- I do love the arch. - LAUREN: Wow.
- JEREMIE: It's really good. - BROOKS: It's really cool.
- JEREMIE: I like the knots. - JUSTIN: So they got the rope tiebacks.
JEREMIE: I love the knots on the rope, too.
My concern is that there's not a continuous piece of system
- that holds it all together. - Right.
BROOKS: It's not quite arching enough.
- It's trying to be an arch, but it isn't. - Oh, yeah.
I'm a little concerned there's a brace on one side,
- but not on the other. - BROOKS: Oh, yeah.
- JEREMIE: I might run across this bridge. - (JUSTIN LAUGHS)
- Scamper. Okay. - Let's just leave it that.
LAUREN: And I noticed that at the top,
uh, they did a T version, so just a bunch of T's
to just have to tie in and offset the joints at the bottom.
I'm nervous for Gold Team's bridge.
I'm not sure it's gonna hit the 500-pound mark.
JUSTIN: Everybody, it's time for the Shop Class stress test.
And let's get behind the safety glass.
All right. Uh, my bearded angels, let's pile on the pounds.
- (ANNEKA GROANS) - I saw some wiggle-jiggle.
Stressed? Are you getting stressed from the stress test?
I'm just freaking out inside just, like, willing it to keep, like, staying up.
JUSTIN: Anneka, you nervous?
- No! - Talk me through your thought process.
- Right now? My brain is collapsing. - JUSTIN: Yeah.
But look, I think the ropes are starting to kick in.
Alan, how's that arch design working for you right now?
- It's still up. - Yeah.
BROOKS: Aw, I see some bowing on the bottom.
- It's breaking! Yeah! - You... Why are you rooting against them?
- (BRIDGE CREAKING) - JUSTIN: Now how much weight... Oh.
(ALL GASP, SCREAM)
- Yeah. That was cool. - That was cool.
- It was cool, right? - The ropes tried to kick in.
JUSTIN: It did not make the 500-pound minimum, unfortunately, Gold Team.
But it looked cool when it was collapsing.
Gold Team, uh, your bridge supported 350 pounds. That's not bad.
- Oh, wow. - ANNEKA: Well, our bridge looked great.
- ETHAN: Yes. - ALAN: Yeah.
Yeah, we're very, very proud of that.
Very glad that we went with this design.
Let's check out Green Team's.
Green Team, you're up next. Come on over.
Okay. Uh, Green Team, The Golden Green Bridge.
Caleb, talk me through your bridge from design to final build.
We all drew our favorite bridges that we had in our mind,
and then pushed all those designs together.
And that's what we came up with.
JUSTIN: So, Olivia, how do you think it's gonna hold up
to the 500-pound weight test?
I think, first of all, that base that we have is definitely gonna hold,
based on just how strong we made it.
So judges, let's take a closer look at Green Team's bridge.
- What do you say? Yeah. - Yeah.
They really put a lot of thought in, like which parts they reinforced,
double layers. The solid decking, all the cross bracing.
- So, no wiggles. - So, I bet that this will hold
- the 500 pounds. - Yeah.
I'm just not sure if it's gonna withstand the 2,500.
- Yeah. - Now, why would that be?
What... What would you say is a weakness?
It's got joints right here, right?
- Yeah, two different joints. - So, that's a weak point.
So the Green Team's bridge looks amazing, but it's gonna flex a lot.
And so, it's not structural at all.
It's just wood fibers holding everything together.
Yeah. That's a concern. It's a little heavy.
We'll see how that does.
I'm a little more concerned about the Green Team's
because they did that solid wooden deck,
um, and I think that adds a lot of weight without all that much structure.
I'm curious to see what happens.
All right. Much like an all-you-can-eat buffet,
- it's time to pile on the pounds. - Yes.
Thank you, Sonny.
All right, let's do it.
- CALEB: Good job. - JEREMIE: Two-fifty.
JUSTIN: Pretty good.
Four hundred pounds. You got a hundred pounds to go.
- All right, it's 500 pounds. - Yeah!
It's at 500. Nice, 500.
- Way to go. - All right.
Oh, look out. Look, the black ends are lifting up off the ground.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
Green Team, guys, they just hit 1000.
- A thousand? A thousand! - Oh, 1000! Yeah!
- Awesome. - SONNY: We have 1500?
JEREMIE: Fifteen hundred.
- JUSTIN: Wow. Nice. - BROOKS: Keep going.
- JUSTIN: Keep going, yeah. - OLIVIA: Keep going!
The bridge is looking strong. I mean, it is bending.
SONNY: It is bending, but that's what we were planning on.
Green Team, you just hit 2,000 pounds.
- That's a ton! - Your bridge is holding a ton of weight.
- CALEB: Yeah. - SONNY: A ton.
JUSTIN: Amazing. So cool.
Twenty-five hundred pounds. Tyler, don't let us down.
- Gingerly put it... Place it atop. - (BRIDGE CREAKS)
- It's creaking. - (ALL GASPING)
- Twenty-five hundred! - (ALL CHEERING)
Wow! Caleb.
Wow.
CALEB: I knew our bridge was strong. I didn't know it was gonna hold
all the weight they could put on there. A whole car. Over a ton.
That's a tough act to follow, Blue Team, but you're gonna follow it right now.
Do you feel pretty confident in yourselves?
GABRIEL: Yeah, we feel really confident.
The only weak point that we might see is our slats on the bridge.
If those break, that would be the only thing that would.
Henry brought the truss idea on the top
and Gabriel kinda brought the adapted arch of the bottom.
All of the pieces of wood work together,
to help spread out the weight.
So you have weight every place, and then also with our triangles,
it's just gonna help it even more.
JUSTIN: Okay. Judges, what do you say? Should we take a closer look and see.
- LAUREN: Yes. - JUSTIN: All right.
That's great, and I love these three sort of stacked two-by-twos.
- BROOKS: Looks solid. - Super, super solid and strong.
BROOKS: I mean, right? This looks incredibly stable.
Do you think this is gonna hold up to as much weight as the Green's?
- LAUREN: I do. I bet it would. - I think it's gonna get close.
It's really hard to tell, actually. They both used
the trusses, the triangular trusses, really well.
They both have a really great structure.
I'm a little concerned here, that these are gonna push down
on the cross pieces, on the triangular pieces.
It's like almost two bridges, right? They have this white bridge
and then the blue bridge. It's double trusses,
which is a really incredible idea for young kids to come up with.
All right. Bring on the stress test. Let's get it on.
Okay! Okay. All right. Embarrassment is out of the way.
All right. One down.
All right. Blue Team, guess what? You just hit 500. Pretty cool. All right.
- Easy. - (ALL CHEER)
It was really nerve-racking initially to see the sandbags
being piled onto our bridge, but after we saw it not bending at all,
we got a little boost of confidence.
A thousand pounds. Blue Team just hit 1000 pounds.
- LAUREN: Nice. - Look at that, it's not even budging.
- The triangles are really working. - It's not moving.
Fifteen hundred pounds. It just hit 1,500 pounds.
- It's, like, not even flexing. - But it's beautiful.
- There's no cracks. - It is beautiful.
- Well, guess what? You just hit... Yes. - GABRIEL: And it's holding a ton.
It's holding a ton. It's holding the amount of fun
that you had making it.
All right, team. We have five bags to go.
ALL: Three.
- ALL: Two. - Two, thank you, two.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
ALL: One! Twenty-five hundred, all right!
Yeah. Let's go!
Cerulean Pass has held up to 2,500 pounds.
Congratulations, you guys. That's crazy.
Well done. So, let's get inside.
All right, before we announce the winner, let's hear from our judges. Brooks,
uh, what are your thoughts on Gold Team's beautiful structure?
I wanted to comment on the knots in particular because I'm a sailor.
I grew up racing sailboats, and I noticed some really amazing knots.
So, I really applaud the effort and the energy
that went into the bridge itself.
Lauren, what are your thoughts on Gold Team's design aesthetic?
It looked awesome. The pirate bridge is a really cool theme.
You're the only one who even used stain, so I'm proud of you for that.
And you're the only one who did an arch bridge.
Jeremie, as an Imagineer, what are your thoughts on Gold Team?
I really liked how you chose this really creative design
and you really themed it with that pirate look.
Now, you know, it's a bridge,
so it needs to still be structurally sound.
And so, if you had had a little more time, maybe you could've added
some of those components that would've done it.
Jeremie, what do you think of the Green Team's Golden Green Bridge, right?
You showed that you don't necessarily need a rigid structure,
like the Blue Team had. You can use flex
and still accomplish it, and not break.
I mean, it's just a really great, light, airy design,
- which makes it beautiful. - JUSTIN: Brooks Atwood.
So what's happening here is, wood has a lot of fibers in it,
and those fibers are really strong.
The wood fibers itself are what's holding the bridge together,
Just the craftsmanship of this thing is off the charts,
and it's very eye-catching, and this would be iconic in any city.
It looks cool, but the really cool part is the story that you were telling
down here on the base, and that was really beautiful.
So Lauren, what are your thoughts on the Blue Team's bridge? I'm sorry.
The Cerulean Pass.
Ah. First off, amazing job.
The sheer size of it is impressive. And the last ten percent of any project
is the hardest part, and I wish that sign had been maybe a little bit grandiose
or a little bit bigger or maybe the wording had been thought out,
or at least spelling. (CHUCKLES)
This design is really incredible.
So they have all these little design touches as well, like the mitered edges,
and they have the little support structures over there.
With the way the little crossbeams are arranged,
you could almost drive a train across there,
I wouldn't be surprised.
Yeah. I mean, as an architect, the bridge is a real masterpiece.
Yeah, like, you can almost track the forces being, uh, distributed
throughout all of the members.
You actually built it the way a real bridge would be built.
JUSTIN: Judges, great feedback.
- Why don't we huddle up and deliberate? - LAUREN: Yeah.
JEREMIE: All right.
Green's bridge with the... You know, I love the camaraderie
and the fun-ness of it.
A hundred and ten percent, we have a chance to go to the finals.
Aesthetically, I also thought the pirate ship one was really cool.
Hard work plus our arch design equals success.
Blue really knocked my socks off.
Yeah, they incorporated the supports in their design, which was incredible.
Right, right.
MORGAN: I feel pretty confident in my team, and I think
we have a chance at the semi-finals.
Okay. Thanks, judges. Let's deliver the news to the teams.
- BROOKS: Okay. - LAUREN: All right.
- All right. - JEREMIE: Ooh, big moment.
Judges, thank you again. Teams, great job.
But as you know, there's only one team moving on to the semi-finals.
The judges have deliberated, and the winning team is...
(MUSIC PLAYING)
the Blue Team
- Yeah. - (ALL CHEER)
MORGAN: Nice. Nice job.
- (ALL APPLAUDING) - HENRY: Nice job.
(HOOTS)
We worked really well together. Everyone was totally on board on the team
and we built a really amazing bridge, and the judges loved it.
JUSTIN: The Blue Team passed over the competition
with their arch truss design,
earning Morgan, Gabriel, and Henry a spot in the semi-finals.
Gold Team and Green Team, you're not moving forward,
but you are going home with something awesome
for all your future builds;
a fully stocked rolling tool chest.
So, come on. They're really cool.
- LAUREN: Tools, tools, tools! - There are tons of tools.
Blue Team, congratulations. We'll see you in the semi-finals.
Great job. But well done to all of you guys.
The fact that you accomplished all that in three days is nuts.
- Okay. - Good job, guys.
JEREMIE: Nice job.
Blue Team's assembly line machine is gonna be chugging their way
- into the semi-finals. - OLIVIA: Nice. You guys did great.
- Good job. - LAUREN: You did it!
Congratulations, Henry. It's awesome.
- BROOKS: Congratulations, congratulations. - Yeah.
(MUSIC PLAYING)