StructuresWill they fall, will they shake, or

will they maybe even break!!

Ben Page, Gaby Barahona, Fatimah Fair, Aziza Fall

Your Text Here

Problem/Purpose

How can we build a structure that is earthquake resistant?

What materials can you use to make a structure earthquake resistant?

Our research…The research that we did helped us create different types of

buildings that might be earthquake resistant. Fah’s research explained that if you use strong and flexible materials, then that will make the best earthquake resistant building because the building wont crack or break down, and it wont easily fall. Further more, Aziza’s research was about how Haiti needs to rebuild their structures to make them earthquake resistant because just recently (2010) they had a 7.0 earthquake that destroyed many homes, if these homes had been earthquake resistant there might have been less deaths and destroyed homes. Additionally, Gaby’s research was about making structures that will hold down in an earthquake. Lastly, Ben’s research was about testing to see if wood is earthquake resistant.

Hypothesis By combining this research we predict that if we build one

structure using a heavy material like cardboard, then that structure will be the most earthquake resistant by having the largest amount of rubber band pulls without falling down.

Independent Variable: The materials that we use to build each structure and the force of the earthquake.

Dependent Variable: How long each structure will last (how many times we pull the rubber band) before it falls down based on the materials that are used to build each structure.

Materials 15 plastic straws

6 square pieces of cardboard

1 roll of duct tape

8 sticks

5 small pieces of clay

Procedures1. Build a cardboard cube with 6 pieces of cardboard

2. Build a cone out of 15 straws and tape where all the straws meet

3. Build a square pyramid put the clay at each vertex

4. Put a structure on the shake table , pull rubber band until the structure falls

5. Record data (how many pulls the the structure stayed up) and repeat step four again for each structure

DATAType of structure(Indep. V.)

Trial 1(amount of shakes)

Trial 2(amount of shakes)

Trial 3(amount of shakes)

Average

Cardboard

10 shakes

29 shakes

15 shakes

18 shakes

Straw Teepee

2 shakes 1 shake 2 shakes 1.6shakes

Sticks & Clay

13 shakes

2 shakes 52 shakes

22 shakes

Trials and Averages of Structures

Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Average0

10

20

30

40

50

60

CardboardStrawsSticks & Clay

Trials and Averages of Structures

Cardboard Straws Sticks & Clay0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Trial 1Trial 2Trial 3Averages

Bibliography Author unknown. ”Building To The Limits”. Science Museum. Date page was

created unknown. October 18, 2011.http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/building/

Perkins, Sid. "Rocking the House." Science News for Kids. Northrop Grumman Foundation, 22 Jan. 2007. Web. 15 Feb. 2012.

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2007/01/rocking-the-house-3/

Conclusion Part |

We hypothesized that if we build one structure using a heavy material like cardboard, then that structure will be the most earthquake resistant by having the largest amount of rubber band pulls without falling down. Our hypothesis was not supported by our data because the sticks and clay structure was more earthquake resistant and had an average of 22 shakes, while the cardboard had an average of 18 shakes without falling.

Conclusion Part |

One part of our experiment that we would change is the construction of our straw structure. This is because the straws were all different lengths, so the structure wouldn’t even stand up, which made it an unfair experiment.

We’d also make the dependent variable not how many shakes the structure could hold up, but how long the structures would stay up. We would want to see if there were higher or lower result with time.

Conclusion Part IIThe results relate to the real world because the results showed the structure that was strong and flexible (sticks and clay structure) performed better than the stronger, less flexible material under the pressure of the earthquake. That shows that strong, but flexible materials perform the best in a real-life earthquake.

THE END!!!

THANKS FOR WATCHING!