Building Structures

Grade two students have been learning about structures. For their summative assessment, the students' task was to build a structure that withstands forces. They first chose an environment (building site) and had the task of designing and building a model structure. For example, they could design a small house on the beach of a tropical island. In this case, their structure should be built to withstand the forces of typhoon winds, strong rains, strong sun rays, sand, palm trees, and possible falling coconut. Sounds like a nice place to be! As long as your beach hut is built strong and stable like ours!


These were the materials that were available to use:

reusable paper, unifix cubes, pattern blocks, sticky tack, and tape


The Success Criteria:

Structure has to withstand the force of wind from a fan

Structure has to withstand the force of a shaking table

Structure has to withstand the weight of one PET bottle

Children have the ability to focus for long periods of time-- if what they're doing is engaging and interesting. What are your daughter's passions and interests? When does your daughter focus the most-- what is she doing?

During the unit, grade two students learned hands on about the different forces that affect materials: compression, tension, bending, torsion, and sheer. The girls were introduced to the scientific vocabulary as well as simpler verbs that make it easier for children to conceptualize: push, pull, twist, squeeze. You could ask your daughter to teach you about different forces using the diagram below.

When we injure ourselves, one of these forces are at play. Ouch! For example, because of the force of compression while jogging, Mr. E.'s ankle became sore. (Please don't worry about him-- he ate plenty of bananas to make his body strong and healthy again).

Hands-on learning activities are important for developing fine-motor skills

When a structure is strong and stable it has the ability to hold a load without breaking or shaking. Strong structures can hold a lot of weight, withstand the pushing and pulling of forces, and are not easily broken or scratched. Stable structures can maintain balance, withstanding the pushing and pulling from forces, and do not shake, wiggle, or tip over. Since we live in Japan, living in a building that is both strong and stable is especially important to us!

By experimenting and trial and error, students learned that structures that have a wide base and a low center of gravity are more stable.

One factor that affects the strength and stability of a structure is its shape. Some shapes are more stable than other shapes. During the unit, the students experimented with different shapes (square, triangle, and a square with a cross inside) to find which one is more stable.

Would you like to learn more about what our class learned about buildings and structures? Please ask us questions in the comment section below!