Recently, students at Ridge High School in Mr. Mark Dotta's Architecture class, made and tested concrete samples. The students made 14 different samples, where they used premixed concrete (Quikrete) and homemade mixtures where they adjusted the ratios of cement, aggregate, sand and water. Students also experimented by adding steel reinforcement to select samples. Before concrete mixing started, students learned about the different uses of concrete and cement as well as their strengths, limitations, ingredients and how they are made. Compression tests were made after allowing the samples to cure at one week and one month benchmarks. The results were graphed, compared and converted from pounds to tons. As seen in the photo, the samples were placed in a hydraulic press where the best sample held 6.5 tons!
