This term in science we were given an engineering challenge in groups which was to design and create an earthquake proof building made of only spaghetti and Blu-Tack. The building must reach 60cm tall whilst staying within the given budget of $60. The building than has to be put through a shake table test to simulate an earthquake.
The first building we made was designed to have cross bracing and a triangle base. We chose to use cross bracing to our building as it distributes force around the building to safely move with vibrations, we also chose to use a triangle base as they have fixed angles and do not distort easily. Our first building survived the shake table test but was still very weak and flimsy at the top which could cause the top of the building to collapse. A problem we encountered in our first design was that we struggled to stay in budget but we overcame this by doing a triangle base instead of hexagon. In our second building we changed the top to be sturdier and stronger by adding a stronger frame to the top half of the building like the bottom half already had. Our second building also survived the shake table.
I think overall our team worked fairly well together to complete this engineering task. We all contributed constructive and problem solving aspects to create our building. Phoebe was really good at problem solving when things would go wrong, Hayley was good at building the building as she was patient when the spaghetti would break, Kaiya’s strength was doing the budgeting and I think I was good at giving constructive criticism. We also all contributed in doing research and designing. I think this project helped me improve my communication and problem solving skills as I had three other group members to communicate with.
