On Monday we put on our scientist hats and did an experiment to test whether taller structures were more stable than shorter ones. Based on what they knew about structures already most students hypothesized shorter structures would be more stable. Using three heights of cardboard tubes, we conducted an experiment where the students placed three cardboard tubes (short, medium and tall) in a shoebox lid. We then gently tipped one end of the lid up and observed what happened. As hypothesized by most students, the tallest tube fell over first, followed by the medium tube, then the shortest one. Some enterprising scientists even went further and tried rearranging the order of the tubes to see if that made a difference, and in most cases, it did not. The only time the shortest tube fell over first was when it was placed directly in front of the taller tubes, and they knocked over the short tube on their way down.
We learned that this is important for construction workers to know when they are building, but then that led to the question: "Why then are there so many tall buildings if they're not as stable?" Until next science class...
Sounds like they had fun !
ReplyDelete