The goal for this project was to research, design and create a spaghetti tower out of a limited amount of spaghetti and Blue Tack that can withstand a 10 second table simulated earthquake. These towers needed to be at least 60cm tall and have a maximum base of 30cm x 30cm. Our group, consisting of Audrey, Hazel and I, began this task looking at real life earthquake resistant buildings and based our design off of that. We found that they make use of triangles, large bases, bracing, and building height. For our design, we used triangles where possible as they are the strongest shape, we made our base big enough to hold the weight of our tower, and we added extra shapes on the side of our first layer to make our tower sturdier. After we worked out how much this design would cost, it came out to $58.90, but little did we know, building this would take more resources. When constructing our first model, we found out that each piece of spaghetti was only 25cm long, and we needed 30cm ones. Because of this, we needed to join two together. This caused the tower to take much longer to build and we had to use more blue tack to get these pieces to stay together enough to withstand the earthquake. After constructing, our tower looked like this;

We decided it was ready after doing some light shaking of it on the table and got it ready. During the test, our tower was very successful and did not sustain any damage at all. It stayed the same height of 63cm before and after the test, making it a huge success. The only problems we encountered were the joints of two pieces of spaghetti being wobblier than the rest, and the spike. Our teacher said that the spike wasn’t a good idea and for our next, final, design we should incorporate it into our build. So, we changed our design to suit these disadvantages.

Our second design came out looking like this. We incorporated the spike into the build, and we moved the actual joints of spaghetti into the middle in the hopes that it would reduce the wobble. We thought these changes would help improve our tower, but we underestimated how difficult it would be to make. Throughout the long process of attempting to construct our second design, we couldn’t get the top layer to stay on without it constantly toppling over. We were losing time as our tower kept crumbling, and we needed to get it tested. Due to the tower being stable with just the bottom and middle layers together, we kept our tower small. While it was too small to fit the success criteria, our tower was just as stable as before, and taught us about the importance of effective time management how earthquake resistant structures are made.

Before we began the project, we gave each member of our team roles based upon our skills. Audrey was speaker and reporter, Hazel was project manager, and I was equipment manager. While we had these jobs planned out for each of us, how we worked changed throughout the project. I feel that we worked quite well together, as Audrey would do more of the mathematic side of our design, while Hazel and I would research the types of structures we could make and the bracing we could use. When it came to actually constructing the tower, Audrey took the lead in creating the tower as Hazel and I would help to hold it if she needed and measured and weighed out the materials needed for the tower, as well as cleaning up afterward. We found that these jobs more suited our strengths and it was more effective than the previous plan.

After reflecting on our process of the project, I found that there were a couple of things I would do differently to benefit us during this task. It took us a while to come up with a design that worked budget-wise and incorporated our research. Because of this setback, when it came to actually constructing our designs, it was a push for time and it caused faults in our towers. This was mainly evident in our second design when we had to cut the top layer due to our lack of time and the rushed, wobbly building. Another thing I would change would be our second design. We were also pushed for time and struggled to improve on the disadvantages of our old design that would fit in our allocated budget. Consequently, this design was not well thought out and the large top layers put too much weight on the base. I would of liked to change our design and make it a better shape that incorporated the top more. Through more better time management, and a more carefully thought out second design, I feel as though our second tower would be a lot more successful.

Overall, I found this task very helpful in allowing me to understand how earthquake resistant buildings are made, and in developing my collaboration and team work. It also taught me how important it is to use your time effectively.