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Toothpick Towers
Build the tallest tower that can withstand an earthquake and learn how engineers use the strength of different shapes to design structures that can withstand the demanding elements.
Build Toothpick Towers
Build the tallest tower that can withstand an earthquake and learn how engineers use the strength of different shapes to design structures that can withstand the demanding elements.
What you need:
Toothpicks (be careful, the ends of toothpicks can be quite sharp).
Something for your toothpicks to stick into and help hold your tower together – mini marshmallows, gum drops, plasticine or modelling clay, or Styrofoam balls all work.
Flat table or surface to build your tower on.
Supplies for Toothpick Tower
What you do:
Make shapes by inserting your toothpicks into your Styrofoam balls, marshmallows, gum drops or clay. Whatever you choose to stick your toothpicks into will be the corners of your shapes. Make a two-dimensional triangle using three toothpicks and three corners, and a two-dimensional square using four toothpicks, and four corners.
Triangle
Square
2. Test the strength of your shapes. Press down on your square. What happens? Does the shape still hold together or does is bend and twist? Do the same for your triangle. What happens? Which shape do you think is stronger? What shape do you think would be best to use to build a strong tower?
Test the Triangle
Test the Square
3.A cube is a three-dimensional shape that has six sides, like a game die. Build your square into a cube by adding a vertical toothpick to each corner, and then complete the remaining squares on each side of your cube.
4.Test the strength of your cube by pressing down on it like we did before. What happens? Is the shape stronger now? Does it hold its shape, or does it bend and twist?
Cube
5. A tetrahedron is a three-dimensional triangle that has four sides. Build your triangle into a tetrahedron by adding a vertical toothpick into each corner, and then gather the three points of the toothpicks together in the centre and add the final corner.
6.Test the strength of your tetrahedron by pressing down on it like we did before. What happens? Is the shape stronger now?
Tetrahedron
7. What other shapes could you build and test to see which is the strongest? See the shapes below for some other shapes to try.
Now that we have an idea what shapes are strongest, we must design our tower. You can either draw your design, or just start building your idea to see what works and what does not.
For this challenge, design and build a tower that can:
Be a freestanding structure – meaning it can stand on its own without you holding it up or sticking it to the flat surface you are working on.
Try and only use 25 toothpicks.
Build it as tall as you can.
If something you design does not work, try again with a new idea. Don’t give up! Science is all about trying out new ideas and asking questions.
Tower Made With Cubes
Tower Made With Tetrahedrons
Explanation
An engineer is a person who designs and builds complex products, machines, systems, or structures. Engineers want to know how and why things work. They have scientific training that they use to make practical things. (National Geographic).
Structural engineers must consider many factors when designing a structure such as what is the purpose of the structure, where is it going to be, what kind of ground will it be built on, what kind of weather will it be faced with, what materials will be best to use and many other considerations.
Throughout this challenge, you participated in a similar engineering design process.
Engineering Design Process
What is a freestanding structure?
Freestanding means that it doesn’t need another structure to support it. Most houses are freestanding structures. The tallest freestanding structure in Canada is the CN Tower in Toronto. It was completed in 1976 and is 553.3 metres high. The tallest freestanding structure in the world is the Burj Khalifa completed in 2009. It is 829.9meters high located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
CN Tower, Toronto, Canada
Burj Khalifa, Dubai, UAE
Important terms:
Buckling: When a material bends under compression.
Compression: When a force pushes materials together.
Elasticity: The property of a material to bend or deflect, and then return to its original shape.
Force: Any influence that tends to accelerate an object; a push or a pull.
Load: The weight which a building or structure must carry.
Dead Load: The weight of the building itself plus all permanent fixtures; it does not change.
Live Load: Weight of the objects which move in, out, or shift in the building (people, furniture, etc.); it is constantly changing.
Plasticity: The property of a material in which it does not return to its original form after a bend or deflection.
Shear: When a force slides material against one another.
Tension: When a force pulls materials apart.
Taking it further
Once you have a tower design that is free standing you can measure how tall it is.
Gently shake the flat surface you are working on to simulate an earthquake or a windstorm. Does your tower still stand? What can make it stronger?
What can you place on top of your tower to test its strength? A book? A soup can?
How sturdy and tall can you make your tower using 50 toothpicks, or 100?
Keep designing and trying new towers.
What other structures can you build?
What would you need to consider if you were to build a bridge?
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Pasta Bridges
Building a bridge that can withstand the elements requires some creative thinking, careful planning, and testing. Design and build the strongest bridge you can with uncooked pasta.
Build Pasta Bridges
Building a bridge that can withstand the elements requires some creative thinking, careful planning, and testing. Design and build the strongest bridge you can with uncooked pasta.
What you need:
Two pie plates turned upside down. These will act as the gap your bridge will try to cross. Any two items of the same height will also work
Uncooked spaghetti - as much as you need (depends upon how long you want your bridge to be!)
Plasticine or modelling clay
Hot glue gun (Have an adult help you with this!)
Elastic bands
Ruler
Tape
Weights or toy cars to test the strength of your bridge
Several pieces of paper
Something to write with
What you do:
A bridge is a structure that crosses over an open area, such as a river or mountain valley. Before we build our pasta bridge, let’s test some basic ideas.
Place your items that are the same height on a flat surface and measure the distance between them. A suggested distance is about 30 cm. If you are using pie plates, be sure to place them on the surface so the bottom is facing up.
Cut a strip of paper about 7 cm across, and a bit longer than the distance you measured between your two items.
Place the strip of paper on top of the two items. Place your toy car on the paper to test to see if your simple paper bridge can hold the weight of the toy. What happens? Most likely, your strip of paper was not strong enough to hold the weight of the toy car and your toy car fell. What can we do to make this bridge stronger?
Engineers create strong bridges by combining different types of structures together such as beams, arches, trusses and suspensions. In the explanation section below, there are some examples of each type of these structures. We are going to test three of these structure types in paper first before we get to work building our pasta bridge.
Using some paper and a pen or pencil make a simple chart like the one below:
| Bridge Structure | What Happened? |
| --------------------- | --------------------- |
| Beam | |
| Arch | |
| Truss | |
| Combination |
For beams, try making a paper tube the same height as your pie plates and place it the middle of the distance between the pie plates. Now, place that strip of paper we did the first test with on top of the beams. Test your beam bridge with your toy car. What happens? Record what happens in the chart you made. What happens if you use two beams, or three? Test and record your results in the chart.
To test an arch, take another strip of paper about the same size as the first one and try to curve it into a half circle. You could also use a paper cup on its side. Place your paper arch between the pie plates, and your first strip of paper on top of your arch. What happens? Record what happens in the chart you made. What if you used multiple smaller arches? Test and record your results in the chart.
To test trusses, take another piece of paper and fold down the top about 3 cm down. Turn the paper over and fold down again another 3cm. Repeat folding back and forth until you have folded your way to the end of the paper. You should have something that looks like this:
Put your folded piece of paper in between the pie plates, and your test strip of paper on top of the folded paper. What happens? Record your results in your chart.
Now try some combinations of these structures. Test an arch with trusses, or an arch of beams. Keep testing your car on each combination you come up with and record your results in the chart.
Now that we know a little about what makes a bridge strong, let’s design our pasta bridge. Draw out your design on a piece of paper. Don’t forget to include what we have learned so far about the different types of structures engineers use in their bridge designs.
Build your pasta bridge design. You can use a hot glue gun if there is an adult around to help you, or you can use elastic bands, tape, or modelling clay to construct your pasta bridge.
Once complete, don’t forget to test the strength of your bridge and record your results. How can you change your design to make your bridge even stronger?
Explanation:
Bridges have been built for thousands of years using a range of different materials such as rocks, mud, lumber, metal, concrete, and even glass. The strength of a bridge is determined by its structure, not the materials it is made of.
Engineers create strong bridges by combining different types of structures together such as beams, arches, trusses and suspensions.
Here are some examples of different structures engineers use when designing their bridges:
BEAMS
Beam bridges use pillars dug deep into the ground or foundation to support the weight of the bridge on top of the pillars.
ARCHES
Arch bridges use an arch underneath the pathway to support the weight of the bridge, and also allows people and vehicles to pass under the bridge.
TRUSSES
Truss bridges use multiple triangles and walls to give a bridge strength.
SUSPENSIONS
Suspension bridges use cables between the deck of the bridge and towers along the bridge to help hold the weight of the bridge.
An engineer is a person who designs and builds complex products, machines, systems, or structures. Engineers want to know how and why things work. They have scientific training that they use to make practical things. (National Geographic).
Structural engineers must consider many factors when designing a structure such as what is the purpose of the structure, where is it going to be, what kind of ground will it be built on, what kind of weather will it be faced with, what materials will be best to use and many other considerations.
Throughout this challenge, you participated in a similar engineering design process.
Important terms:
Buckling: When a material bends under compression.
Compression: When a force pushes materials together.
Elasticity: The property of a material to bend or deflect, and then return to its original shape.
Force: Any influence that tends to accelerate an object; a push or a pull.
Load: The weight which a building or structure must carry.
Dead Load: The weight of the building itself plus all permanent fixtures; does not change.
Live Load: Weight of the objects which move in, out, or shift in the building (people, furniture, etc.); constantly changing.
Plasticity: The property of a material in which it does not return to its original form after a bend or deflection.
Shear: When a force slides material against one another.
Tension: When a force pulls materials apart.
Taking it further:
Try building a bridge out of paper and tape and see if your bridge can hold the weight of 100 pennies.
Try testing how suspension structures work.
Take a walk around your neighbourhood and see if you find any bridges. Draw the different structures that you see that make the bridge strong.
How much weight can your bridge hold?
What is the longest bridge you could build?
Can your bridge survive a windstorm or an earthquake? How could you test that?
Try building a cantilever bridge as shown below.
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Mission Parachute Drop
A summertime twist on the classic egg drop engineering challenge. Instead of protecting an egg with a parachute you design and create one that will prevent a water balloon from bursting when dropped to the ground using only the supplies listed.
Mission Parachute Drop
Here is a summertime twist on the classic egg drop engineering challenge. Instead of protecting an egg with a parachute you design and create one that will prevent a water balloon from bursting when dropped to the ground using only the supplies listed.
What you need:
1 piece of paper (tissue paper or newspaper)
String (no more than 100 cm)
6 straws or wooden popsicle sticks
25 toothpicks
Plastic garbage bag
Aluminum foil (1 piece)
Masking tape
Small balloon
Water
Scissors
What you do:
Research images of parachutes. How to they look when falling? What makes them expand? What forces are utilized when the parachute drops? How can a person or object be protected as they land?
Your challenge is to make a parachute with the water balloon as cargo. You will need to make your parachute land slowly and fall to the ground safely.
Gather materials: use only the materials listed to make it more challenging. From the images you saw and the supplies available sketch out the design of the parachute.
Cut a large piece from the plastic garbage bag. Make your own design, either round, square or octagon. This is the canopy.
Cut small holes around the edges of the canopy so the string can be attached. Secure the holes with a bit of tape.
Attached the string to each hole. Add more tape to make sure that the string will not pull through the plastic.
Create a basket or holder for the water balloon from the straws, popsicle sticks, and toothpicks. Cover any sharp edges with aluminum foil, plastic and tape. Make sure the balloon can fit safely and securely.
Fill the balloon with water keeping it small enough to fit safely into the basket you created.
Test your parachute: Find an outdoor location in which you can stand on a surface that elevates you about one metre from the ground. Places such as the top of a deck, the ladder of a slide, or from a picnic table. Be sure to ask an adult for help with climbing. Make sure that the water balloon is secure and safe in the basket. Count down and release the balloon and parachute.
Observe the results. Was your parachute built to safely land the water balloon on the ground? What things would you change? If the parachute was dropped from an airplane, would it survive the drop? Make changes and modification to the parachute and try it again!
How it works:
Everything including air is made of matter. You may not always feel it, but air is always pushing on you. Think about a time you rode your bike fast or had a window open when the car was moving, did you feel the air on you? This is called air resistance or drag. Drag is the force that is felt when a solid object moves through air. When designing a parachute, you want there to be a lot of drag on the object that is falling so that it slows down, reducing its speed and making it land soft.
The design of a parachute is important. Most parachutes are round, and dome shaped but some are made rectangular. The rectangular parachutes have many cells for air to get caught in and slow the object as it falls.
Taking it further:
Test the gravitational force: try dropping two objects that weigh different amounts, such as a rock and a feather, to the ground and observe how they fall. Galileo conducted this experiment a long time ago, by dropping a feather and a rock from a tower. He wanted to know if the weight of an object affects how fast it will fall. When you did this experiment did you notice that the rock landed first. It was not because it was heavier but because of its shape. Just like a parachute a feather shape causes it to float down using as much drag as possible in landing.
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Canadarm Challenge Activity
In this challenge, you will design and build your own version of the Canadarm. Test your invention to see if it can successfully pick up an object and move it.
Canadarm Challenge Activity
You are an astronaut on the International Space Station and need to complete a task on the outside of the space station. However, it cannot be fixed by doing a spacewalk. In this challenge, you will design and build your own version of the Canadarm. Test your invention to see if it can successfully pick up an object and move it.
Canadarm 2 And Astronaut David Saint-Jacques
Activity Type
Challenge
Age
7 years old +
What You Need
Markers, paints, paintbrushes, or other craft supplies to decorate your Canadarm
Brass fasteners
Cardboard
Toilet paper rolls
Skewers
Tape
Paper
Straws
Scissors
String
Rocks, balls, small toy or other objects
Paper cups
What You Do
Imagine you are on the ISS, your job is to fix something on the outside of the space station.
Your challenge using the material you have in front of you, build a robotic arm that will be able to move an object.
Think about how you want your design to move and function. Draw it out on paper.
Think about the materials. From the materials in front of you – which would work best for this purpose? You do not have to use all your materials.
Construct your Canadarm. Be sure to test it as you go. Remember, part of the challenge is trying, rebuilding, and trying again!
Canadarm Challenge Examples
Test and Evaluate Your Canadarm
Does it accomplish the goal of lifting an object? How much weight can it pick up? Can your design be changed to improve how it works? Is it durable? How can you make it stronger? Can it be used to hold a tool? What considerations might you have to make if you were designing a working robotic arm for a mission in space? What other reasons or situations could your design or a robotic arm be used for?
More Information
The Canadarm is an example of what Canadians can achieve with collaboration and innovative thinking. It is landmark technological achievement and will continue to inspire future generations of Canadian scientists and engineers as they develop new technologies. Learn more about the Canadarm at the Canadian Space Agency Website.
Taking It Further
Visit the Canadian Space Agency Junior Astronaut Program for more information about Canada’s space program and to find activities you can do at home.
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