Project overview
We were tasked to make an earthquake-proof structure out of spaghetti and blue tack for this assignment. There was a budget of $60, $1 per spaghetti and $1 per gram of blue tack. We worked in partners and created a design we thought was appropriate. We made and tested our first structure then made a second one which we made improvements in order to withstand additional mass.
Engineering process
The engineering process included some planning and research to get an idea of what makes a successful earthquake-proof building and how we can incorporate it in ours. We were given an outline of requirements we must follow which were: has a minimum height of 60 cm, has a maximum base of 30 cm x 30 cm, has a flat platform on the top level of at least 5 cm x 5 cm. We drew a design that followed the criteria and started building. When we started building, we didn’t put that much thought into it and just when for it. We made it up along the way and didn’t end up using our planned design. Our first prototype turned out good and survived the earthquake test. When we started building our second one it was a struggle. Each lesson we would start building, but by the next lesson it would collapse. We couldn’t replicate our first structure, so we ended up making a different one. Due to the time crunch this structure wasn’t as good as our first one but it still passed the earthquake test. We weren’t able to do the mass test because it was weak and didn’t have a good point to add to.
Collaboration
Teamwork and collaboration was very important in making this process successful and in order to achieve this Kereen and I split our jobs. I did a lot of the communicating and asking for help and Kereen was good at leading and keeping everything organised. Kereen was responsible for the research and we both came up with the design. We both helped each other in the building process while sharing thoughts and ideas along the way.
