Earthquake Building Challenge - ASSIGNMENT

Objective: You will design and build a scale model structure that will withstand the force of an
earthquake.

I want to photograph and film this project and submit to EL as an example of your high
quality work.

Structural Guidelines:
This structure will be attached to a base-board by glue, staples, wire twist-ties, etc...
The base-board can be cardboard (or similar) and must be between 25-50 cm in all lateral
dimensions.
The structure (plus the board) must not weigh more than about 15 lbs dont make it too heavy
for the machine!
The structure must scale down the strength of adhesives holding the walls, roof etc. together to
match the scale of the building (more on this below)
The structure will need to withstand P and S waves and possibly a meteor strike
The height of the structure is unlimited
You will research and include at least 1 modern engineering invention that is designed to help
the structure withstand earth movement, and include it in your model
Your structure could be a house or other building, a bridge, a road etc
You may include figurines on your model - I will build a hospital to help victims :)
You will decorate your structures with paint etc. to make it more realistic
Structures that do not break AT ALL will be winners but...structures that fall down and crumble
are actually more fun to watch. You choose your goal!

Scale:
Your structure needs to be realistic and scaled down. This means that if you want to build a
building out of graham crackers, for example, that your pieces are scaled down accordingly. We
dont build walls with 30 pieces of wallboard, right?! So, in this example, the graham crackers
need to be cut and connected together in a scaled fashion so that they are relative to human
size approximately the size of the models door.

Materials:
You should not have to buy anything but of course you may. You can make this out of simple
around-the-house item,s or fancier store-bought materials. Make it fun as well as well designed.
Come see me if you have questions about your materials.

Adhesives:
You must use adhesives that are also scaled down. This may mean cutting tiny pieces of scotch
tape, or using thin smears of mortar between building pieces. Thick frosting, for example, is
not allowed as it is not to scale.
You may NOT use: marshmallow fluff, staples, hot glue, gorilla glue, super glue or the like.
You MAY use: white glue, thin frosting, thin peanut butter, small toothpicks, thin wire, pins and
other items that are scaled down.
 Project Timeline (all dates subject to change):
Brainstorm and begin to design your structure - everyone builds their own structure
Material list generated (by Monday 1/30) and checked by Maggie W 2/1
Scale drawing of structure - accurate and carefully done W 2/1
Building time at home throughout
Bring Models into school Th 2/9
Earthquake days Th 2/9 and F 2/10

There will be additional learning going on at school lead by students. This is the beginning of a
student run learning project I want to try, which will ask each of you to do some teaching
sometime throughout the semester. Some of you may choose to do more than others, and thats
fine. I will not require it but offer it as a way to deepen your understanding and take on some
leadership.

Additional Learning through student mini-lessons:

Foreshocks and aftershocks - seismic gaps 1/30

Depths of earthquakes at plate boundaries 2/1
Earthquake waves - P, S, Surface 2/2
Locating earthquake epicenters through seismographs 2/3
Tsunamis 2/6
Mitigating and protecting ourselves from earthquakes 2/7
Early Warning Indicators and predicting earthquakes 2/8