Creating Earthquake Durable Structures With 4th-Grade Engineers
Mrs. Bain’s fourth graders have been studying earthquakes in the Earth Science section of unit of study. With the knowledge students have gained about earthquakes, they were asked to develop a draft of a structure that could withstand the impact of an earthquake. The students then created a structure out of toothpicks and marshmallows. Next, the students were asked to test their structures by staking them as if in an earthquake. Finally, the students had to reflect on their structure and tell how it handled the earthquake and if they would have done anything different to the structure to make it more durable. (After the activity was over, students were then given marshmallows just for eating.)