Tag Archives: challenge

Engineers in the Making

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The Challenge:

  • Take 100 applicator sticks and a ball of plasticine
  • In your group create the tallest free standing structure possible

 

Just like real engineers we made a plan and then set off to work.  And just like real engineers, we had to make changes to our plans as we experimented!

What we learned:
Merissa-You need to come up with a plan and test it.
Lily-I learned that triangles are the strongest shape.
Linden-I learned that if you build one and it doesn’t work, you have to keep on trying.
Brooklynn-Even though our tower was really, really strong, it was really, really short.
Jacob-I learned that you have to make a plan more than 30 times!
Taegan-You need lots of help.
Sharon-Your first plan might not work.
Kezra-Sometimes when you are building you think it is going to work and then it falls down.
Bronwen-I learned that if you are someone who wants to build huge towers you will really have to think before you build it.
Koa-I learned that it is really tricky to build it.
Teagan-I learned that you need lots of people if you are going to build a tower.
May-Sometimes your plan might not work.

We will use what we learned from this challenge in future challenges.  This week in science we are going to learn more about forces and experiment to see what kinds of shapes are the strongest.

Newspaper Towers

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Today our junior engineers attempted to build towers using newspaper and masking tape. The students had to think about stability and strength. Teams tried to use the things they learned in earlier challenges to build the tallest towers.

Tomorrow we are Skyping with a civil engineer from Australia. We can’t wait to learn about what it is like to be an engineer. Stay tuned for a video of our call.

Joint Construction

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Today our engineers in training learned all about joints. A joint is a point at which two pieces of building material are joined together. The students experimented with different connectors that could be used to join two straws together. We can’t wait to try some of these joints in our upcoming challenges.

Sahara wrote a post on her blog today about engineering. You can read it here.

Forces Acting on Structures

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Today in science we learned about gravity, tension, and compression. We found out that even though these forces are invisible, they are the ABC’s of structural engineering.

Today’s Challenge: Design and build a structure that demonstrates tension in some parts and compression in others.
Materials: 2 cardboard squares, 12 straws, 12 straight pins, 1/2m of masking tape, and 1/2m of string

The students did a fantastic job of working together. They are learning so much!

Joint construction and strengthening materials are next.

Engineers in Training

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This week we started a new unit in science called Materials and Structures. We learned what structures are and looked for different geometric shapes and forms used to create them outside and in our classroom. We also learned that engineers have to be good problem solvers, work well in a team, and be very creative.

Today we tried our first team challenge. Mrs. Watson gave each team 5 sheets of newspaper, 20 popsicle sticks, 1m of masking tape, 1m of string, and 20 minutes to build the tallest free standing structure they could.

Take a peek…

In the next few days we will be learning about forces that act on structures, joint construction, and how to strengthen materials. Then we will try this challenge again.