Earthquake-Resistant Structures STEM Project
Post by Kristina Klammer
Posted: June 17, 2024
Why do earthquakes happen? How can we protect people and buildings during an earthquake? These are just some of the questions students explore in the Earthquake 5E STEM challenge. In this challenge, students learn about earthquakes and how engineers design structures to be earthquake-resistant. Students work in groups to design their own earthquake-resistant structures that they can then test systematically to meet certain criteria. They investigate what technologies engineers use in their buildings, and students explore how engineers test buildings using shake tables and creating models. In a final engineering challenge, students use their knowledge to build and test their own designs.
Why Earthquake STEM?
Even though not every student lives in an earthquake-prone area, many students are naturally curious about what causes earthquakes and what we can do to better protect people from earthquakes. This project draws on students’ natural curiosities and allows them to take on the role of an engineer as they explore and iterate on designs to keep people safe. In small groups, students are able to practice their collaboration skills and learn how to test and iterate on designs by accepting failure as a natural step in the design process.
Students will:
Generate questions about earthquakes and investigate why earthquakes happen.
Investigate how harm to people and damage to structures can be mitigated through engineering design solutions.
Explore how models can be valuable tools in assessing how structures can be designed to withstand the shaking of an earthquake.
Connect their knowledge of structural engineering to a real-world STEM career.
Design and evaluate a model of an earthquake-resistant structure.
This project connects well with an Earth science or plate tectonics-themed unit. It is aligned with the following NGSS Standards for Elementary and Middle School:
4-ESS3-4: Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans.
3-5 ETS 1-3: Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or want; generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of a problem; plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled.
MS-ESS3-2: Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.
MS-ETS1-2: Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
Earthquake-Resistant Structures Project Overview
The week-long STEM project is broken up into four parts that align with the 5-E Model.
Engage: Setting up the Problem
In part one, students make observations about earthquakes. To promote inquiry-based learning, students start by exploring a case study. In this decontextualized activity, students look at images and investigate the 2023 earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. From the photos and images of the damage done to buildings and cities, students curiosity is ignited as they generate questions they have about earthquakes and structures that teachers can build on throughout the project.
Explore: Building Earthquake-Resistant Structures
Students begin building and connecting real technologies to design ideas. They are introduced to the design problem. They then begin to understand earthquakes by watching an introductory video about how earthquakes happen and observing videos of real and simulated earthquakes. Next, students explore by building initial prototypes of earthquake-resistant structures out of mini marshmallows and spaghetti.
Explain: Connect Real Technologies to Design Ideas
In part three, students iterate on their designs and get an inside look on how their project is applied in a real-world STEM career of a structural engineer. They also test the properties of the materials they have to work with, including the difference between angel-hair pasta and regular spaghetti.
Elaborate & Evaluate: Assess Student Learning
In part four, students do a final test of their earthquake-resistant structures, during which their structure must meet certain criteria, including its ability to withstand weight and withstand a minimum simulated earthquake magnitude of 3 on a shake table. The project ends with students taking time to reflect on what they learned.
Materials Needed
To implement this project, you will need materials to build your own shake table, create “sand bags” to test the strength of student designs, and spaghetti and marshmallows to build with. Here is a list of some of the materials needed:
Plastic Food Container (any size)
Strips Velcro
Play Dough
Medium Density Fiberboard with holes
C-Clamps
4 inch (x4) Welded O Rings
Extension Springs
Screw Eyes
Large Plastic Bin
String/Twine
Index Card
Safety Glasses
Note: video instructions for how to build a shake table are included in our teacher’s guide!
Tips and Tricks for Implementation
The following are a few helpful tips as you implement this challenge in your own classroom:
Students are easily swayed by examples, so don’t give them any hints.
Students will want a lot of trials for the sand weight test. Having multiple sandbags is helpful.
The marshmallows harden overnight, so it is difficult for students to finish building a single structure in more than one class period. However, the hardened marshmallows also tend to make the structures more sturdy.
Use lunch trays or something similar to help reduce the mess. Have a broom and dustpan available to clean up the many marshmallows and pieces of pasta that will inevitably end up on the floor!
Building Tips:
Structures built on bedrock generally experience less damage in an earthquake compared to structures built on loose sediment. In this experiment, structures that have rods that go deep into the play dough will generally fare better.
Students that use angel hair pasta for elements of their design will most likely have more flexible, earthquake-resistant structures. There is no hard and fast rule here, but inner trusses made of the more flexible pasta and/or a base made out of a sturdier pasta will most likely be more effective.
Shapes play an important role in the designs as well. Shapes that use triangles and pyramid shapes with wider bases tend to be more stable.
Additional Resources
Here are some great resources for the earthquake STEM challenge to bring in real-world connections:
Want to implement this activity in your classroom or program? Check out our full teacher and student STEM guide here! This includes student handouts for each step of the engineering design process, tips on adapting the activity from kindergarten to middle school, and student STEM guides to real-world connections.
