Q
1 square of cardboard, 30 cm x 30 cm or larger (about 1 ft square)
VOCABULARY
to serve as the base
Q
One copy of Master 4.5a, Building Challenge Design and Analysis
Sheet
Shear force:
force that
acts horizontally
(laterally) on a wall.
These forces can be
for the teacher
Q
Hot glue and glue gun (to be used by one group at a time, under
direct supervision)
Q
Shaking table from Lesson 4.4
Q
A dog leash or other nylon strap about 2.5 cm wide and at least 60
cm long
Q
Several meters of string
Q
A small pulley
Q
Weights, either a kilogram mass set or a small basket and pennies
Q
Master 4.5b, Certificate of Achievement
Q
Slides or videos from the unit resource lists (
optional
)
P ROC E DUR E
Teacher Preparation
1. If you want to make the testing of student models a special event,
make plans now. See Adaptation 1. If you have arranged to involve
guest experts, remind them of the date.
2. Prepare the testing setup. Collect all the materials and have them
ready to distribute.
A. Introduction
Briefly review with students what they have experienced so far in this
series of activities. Especially promote discussion of the ideas
developed in Lesson 4.2. Be careful to leave the applications of those
ideas very open, to avoid giving students the impression that there is
only one right way to design a structure.
caused by earthquakes and by wind,
among other things. Different parts
of a wall experience different shear
forces.
Shear walls:
walls added to a
structure to carry horizontal shear
forces. These are usually solid
elements, and are not necessarily
designed to carry the structure’s
vertical load.
Structural elements or Structural
features:
a general term for all the
essential, non-decorative parts of a
building that contribute structural
strength. These include the walls,
vertical column supports, horizontal
beams, connects, and braces.
B. Lesson Development
1. Direct students to gather in the seismic engineering teams (SETs)
they formed in Lesson 1 of this unit. You may want to have students
choose roles within the teams, like coordinator, engineer, and
technician, to organize the effort and to assign accountability for
timing, design, construction, and describing the performance of the
structure.
2. Return to each team the structure members built in Lesson 1.
Challenge the teams to design and build a new structure that will be
tested in a controlled environment. Hand out the worksheets and give
students time to design their structures before they receive their
materials. Circulate among the groups and approve step 1 and step 2 of
the designs as they are completed.
3. Demonstrate the procedure you will use to test the structures.
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