The Engineering Place (K-20 Outreach)

Construction (5th-8th)

Lesson plan developed by Keith DeWeese

Overview:
Each team of students will build a structure that has certain characteristics (tallest, strongest, etc.) more so than the rest of the class. This activity can be done in 30 minutes or an hour, depending on how much time the students want.

Purpose (Objective):
Students will build a structure that meets certain criteria (tall, strong) out of everyday items.

Materials:
Almost anything. I used cups, plastic straws, toothpicks, tape and plastic forks.

Getting Ready (Background Information):
Make sure there are some heavy books around if you are making strong structures or a tape measure if you are making them tall.

Motivate! (Engage):
Tell the students you are going to do a little bit of hands-on engineering.

Activity (Explore):
Give each group the same amount of materials and set them free to build the tallest, strongest, etc., structure that they can build. Alternately, set a price for everything and allow them to buy materials, each group starting with the same amount of money.

Suggestions:

For a strong structure, make a rule that the structure has to maintain a certain height, such as six inches. This makes it clear when the structure is crushed. If you’re going to compete on height, measure vertically from the floor and declare at the beginning whether the structures can be taped down.

Safety Tips:
Watch fingers when 10-15 books are up there.

Concept Discovery (Explanation):
This is really just a hands-on engineering project. It can relate to the different laws of physics, structural integrity and other practical applications of science, but the main thing it does is let students understand how science is used in real life and how it can be fun. Try to impress this upon the students and you will make your point.

Going Further (Elaboration):
Discover as a class what works and what doesn’t. Ask the students if they know why.

Closure:
Explain which things work better and why from a scientific standpoint and compare them to buildings and other practical applications.

Assessment (Evaluation):
Evaluate participation. Be creative — come up with other things for groups to compete on.

Connections (Integration with Other Content Areas):

This can connect to almost anything. Talk about famous structures or the history of buildings or anything. To make it mathematical, come up with an algorithm such as (height) x (weight held) to see who has the highest score.

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