In term 4 of year 9, I worked with holly and Ashleigh to build an earthquake-proof tower. We were supplied with spaghetti and blue tack to build our tower. The aim was to build a tower that could withstand an earthquake. The building had to meet the following criteria;

• the tower had to be quick and easy to assemble
• must have a minimum height of 60cm
• have a maximum base of 30cm x 30cm
• remains standing after an earthquake
• is constructed from the materials supplied by your teacher
• costs less than 60$ to build given that 10cm of spaghetti costs $1 and 1 gram of blue tack costs $1

Our first tower was going well and was quite stable and didn’t collapse when we tried shaking it but it didn’t meet the high limit so we added an extra piece of spaghetti to the top of it to make it reach the height but as soon as we added that extra piece it was slightly too heavy and the building collapsed. For our second tower, we changed the base of it to be a square to see if that would make it more stable and made the base as wide as we could, and yet again it didn’t quite meet the Hight limit so we added an extra piece of spaghetti on top and because it was more stable and strong it stayed up with the extra piece and when it came to the shake test to see if it was earthquake resistance it stayed standing but was very flimsy. Our third design we tried to make it more stable and less flexible so we made the base smaller so that the spaghetti that went from the corners of the base into the middle to connect would be taller because they would be on less of an angle. that helped make the building taller but it still didn’t reach the Hight limit so we added an extra piece of spaghetti to the top and it seemed strong and stable but when we did the shake test it collapsed. overall our best design was our second even though it was flimsy it didn’t collapse and with the extra piece of pasta, it did reach the Hight limit so it followed all of the requirements.

For the project, we all had jobs to keep. I was the project manager so I made sure we were all on track and to get everything done as efficiently as possible. I was also the speaker so I asked the teacher all of the questions we had. Holly was the equipment manager so she collected all of the equipment for our project. Ashleigh was the designer so she drew all of the designs and helped build, holly collected the materials and helped hold pieces while Ashleigh and I were blue tacking them together and I cut pieces of spaghetti and build the building.

I demonstrated collaboration by working in a team. my teammates were Ashleigh and holly and we worked together for the project and together we make a tower that met all the requirements for the project.

I demonstrated effective communication by explaining my ideas to my teammates. I explained how my design would look so Ashleigh could draw it and I explain why I think it would work and asked Ashleigh and holly what they thought about it.

I demonstrated problem-solving by creating new ideas when our first one didn’t work and what we could do better next time. for example for our third design, it wasn’t tall enough so I said we could create another pyramid and put it on top and add some supports to help hold it up and reach the height limit. this worked but when it came to the shake test it didn’t stay standing.