Students eating frozen marshmallows and standing on tempered glass … students pulling a 165-pound dummy out of a grain bin … Ames Mayor Ted Tedesco helping children build a tower out of Tinker Toys?

These were the sights at the National Engineers Week Student Competition. Engineering students in every area of the major showed off their experiments and demonstrations to interested observers.

The competition was held Wednesday evening, and the various events and demonstrations took place in Marston and Gilman Halls.

One of the most anticipated events of the evening, the Society of Automotive Engineers Formula 1 Car Team demonstration, was held outside Parks Library. The race was cut short because of impending bad weather.

In Marston, several members of American Society of Agricultural Engineering proclaimed that they were “pumped up about engineering.” Several of the students were padded with fake muscles a la Saturday Night Live’s Hans and Franz, and one female member of the group was wearing a cow costume.

Their experiment, a variation on the tug of war, was a simulation of how tough it would be to rescue a person buried up to the shoulders in a grain bin.

The “contestant” would pull upwards on the rope, a task made difficult by the pressure of the grain. For example, if a person was to help a 53-pound person, he or she would have to use 115 pounds of force.

Matt Paustian and Brian Blomme, both seniors in ag engineering, said the demonstration was held in part to promote farm safety.

“Engineers are problem solvers, and one of the biggest problems is … safety,” Blomme said.

The Engineering Ambassador and Mentoring (TEAM) members invited Tedesco and children from the Boys and Girls Club of Ames to build towers with Tinker Toys. The teams competed to see who could construct the tallest structure.

Eric Throener, president of TEAM and senior in electrical engineering, said his group has recently been trying to focus on outreach programs.

“Obviously some things are working, and some things aren’t,” Throener joked, in reference to some of the shaky towers.

Tedesco, busy working with the children, was obviously enjoying himself.

He commented that the demonstrations definitely showed he’s “not an engineer.” He said working with the children was the fun part.

“They’re smarter than I am [at the engineering projects],” he quipped.

Allison Ives, member of TEAM and senior in industrial engineering, helped the children build their own “Camelot” out of Tinker Toys.

Upstairs, the Society of Women Engineers were creating structures out of candy and spaghetti sticks.

Kim Tholen, member of SWE and junior in mechanical engineering, said her group does many creative projects like the spaghetti statues and “Radioactive Ping-Pong” with kids who range in age from pre-school to high school.

Also in Marston, the Tau Beta Pi FIRST Robot team displayed their creation, which will be “playing” basketball at Disney World soon.

ISU engineering students and two of their advisers created the robot with the help of 20 students from Ames High School.

Don Flugrad, mechanical engineering professor, said the Disney World contest is very popular.

Last year, the ISU team was the only team from Iowa, but this year, he said, there may be a team from Iowa City against whom they can compete.

One of the high school students who worked on the project, freshman Ben Woline, said he wants to be an engineer when he gets older.

“It was a lot of fun working with different people,” he said.

In Gilman Hall, the American Ceramics Society was breaking “the unbreakable glass.”

Laura Keehner and Kevin Sutherland, both juniors in ceramic engineering, stood on a piece of tempered glass propped between two chairs.

Keehner explained that the inside glass had tension, while the outside glass had been compressed.

Keehner then “released the tension” by pinching a corner of the glass with a pair of pliers. The entire glass immediately shattered when she clamped on the pliers.

Keehner and Sutherland also showed off several other substances, including edible marshmallows that had been cooked with liquid nitrogen, biomedical implants, and a corn starch and water mixture that was impossible to penetrate when punched with a fist.

All exhibits and demonstrations were judged by members of the local media. The winners of the cash prizes of $500, $300, $200 and $25 will be announced tomorrow at 6:30 p.m.