• Strategy: Supporting Youth Development Through STEM
  • Skill: Making Connections to STEM Careers
  • Time: 40 Minutes

Building For The Big One

Design a structure that can withstand the shaking of an earthquake and work as a team of scientists and engineers.


Objectives:

  • To design a structure that can withstand the shaking of an earthquake
  • To understand how soil type affects a buildings ability to withstand an earthquake

Materials required

  1. 20 Popsicle© sticks per group
  2. Hot glue gun (low temperature)
  3. 2 sticks of hot glue per group
  4. 1 golf ball
  5. 1 aluminum 8in circle baking pans per group
  6. Play-Doh© (2 containers per “bedrock group”)
  7. Grape-nuts© (1 box)
  8. Oobleck (1 ½ cup of cornstarch + 1 cup of water per “land group”)
  9. Graph paper
  10. Ruler
  11. Pens
  12. Career labels
  13. Soil cards
  14. Shake table
  15. Stopwatch