Structure+Project

=STRUCTURE PROJECT = = =

Introduction
= = You are a part of a group of structural engineers and you've been given a challenge. You are to design and build a tall and strong structure from a given set of materials at an engineering competition. You must prove to a panel of judges that you really know your business and that your structure wasn't the winner by luck but instead by great design. The prize will be a huge construction contract for your firm.

Over the next two weeks you will be given time to, design, build, and test your structure. Your structure must be two stories high and hold at least a 25 pound weight (like one found in the weight room). Your structure will be made from 10 manila file folders and white glue. Your group consists of up to 4 members. The structure must be made of **regular** polygons (no circles!). You may use scrap pieces of your folder for support not in the form of regular polygons. We will then analyze the number of sides of your polygons and your interior angle sum to see if there is a correlation between number of sides, interior angle measure, and overall strength of the structure. > > > >
 * Materials Engineer - This person will look at the materials that you will be using to build your structure and how you can best use them to build an effective structure.
 * Design Engineer - This person will look at designs in nature, shapes in geometry, and designs of packing materials and how this affects the strength of a structure.
 * Strength Engineer - This person will look at buildings and building codes to find out what makes them strong enough to hold up to natural forces such as earthquakes, wind, temperature changes, etc.
 * Height Engineer - This person will look at skyscrapers and how they are built to see what keeps these giant buildings from falling over.

The purpose of a building’s structure is to guarantee that the building will stand up under all the loads and forces acting on it: the weights, the pressures, the wind, the forces due to temperature changes, and perhaps even the shaking caused by earthquakes. Engineers want to build structures that won’t collapse and will resist damage. It is also important to make sure that a building is sturdy and will not shift.

= Structure Webquest = =Structure Graph with Sketchpad = =Scale Construction =  = = = =