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<\/p>\nA panel of judges will also give out awards for Structural Integrity, Best Original Design, and Most Cans.<\/p>\n
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Schalk says it is a fun and unique way to support the city\u2019s four food banks \u2013 Lethbridge Food Bank, Interfaith Food Bank, University of Lethbridge Students\u2019 Union Food Bank, and Lethbridge Polytechnic Students\u2019 Association Food Bank.<\/p>\n
\u201cFood needs across the country are just continuing to increase, city-by-city. If you talk to any of the local food banks, they\u2019ll tell you how much that food is increasing, and donations seem to be increasing,\u201d says Schalk.<\/p>\n
Lethbridge Polytechnic is among the teams in this year\u2019s Canstruction competition.<\/p>\n
First and second-year engineering students are building a structure similar to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, titled Leaning Towards Change.<\/p>\n
Instructor and team captain Scott Evanson says they used 936 cans to build the 10-foot tower and a surrounding wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a tube \u2013 it\u2019s not supporting the cans, but it kind of aligns the cans, and then that\u2019s kind of anchored on the bottom, and the weight of the cans is actually holding it all in place,\u201d says Evanson. \u201cThat was our biggest worry. I actually brought a whole bunch of wire in case we had to wire it all together to make sure it wouldn\u2019t fall down, but it ended up being a lot more stable in practice than I thought it would be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evanson says Canstruction is a great practical application of much of what his students have been learning in the classroom, adding that designing computer models and building something in real life are quite different.<\/p>\n
The structure from Centre Village Mall, which is hosting Canstruction, includes the largest number of cans at 2,280. They are building an \u201cocean octopus.\u201d<\/p>\n