Week 7- Mar. 27, 29

Disaster Week- Earthquakes!

Welcome back! Hopefully everyone had a fun Spring Break. We will be focusing the next few weeks on natural disasters. This week it's all about Earthquakes- how they happen, where and when, as well as safety precautions. 

The students had some questions about real world earthquake application, specifically how our buildings are made safe for earthquakes. So I thought that our experiments should focus on how we make safe structures. If time permits we will do three experiments. 

Lab 1: Build a marshmallow structure. See how well it stands up against an earthquake. Each person makes their own structure and compares results with their group.

Lab 2: Build a sugar cube structure See how well it stands up against an earthquake. Each group makes their structure as a team.

Lab 3: Build another sugar cube structure but use frosting as a bonding agent. See how well it stands up against an earthquake. Each group makes their structure as a team.

Youtube videos we watched:

Earthquakes 101

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSgB1IWr6O4&list=PLB42E08110602C9B9&index=15&feature=plpp_video

Bill Nye

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hKssFQdZ0k&list=PLB42E08110602C9B9&index=16&feature=plpp_video

Experiment Links:

Marshmallow Structure

http://www.teachengineering.org/view_activity.php?url=collection/cub_/activities/cub_natdis/cub_natdis_lesson03_activity1.xml

Graham Cracker (Plate Tectonics)

http://www.madsci.org/experiments/archive/1117652897.Es.html

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