Saturday, June 15, 2019

Earthquake-proofing Structures and Buildings



Last week, we went to the Kobe Earthquake Museum. 

The purpose of this field trip was to find out about our second line of inquiry: 
How people advance technology to prepare for extreme natural phenomena. 




In the museum, we watched videos about how the Great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake affected people's lives and how the city was rebuilt to better resist earthquakes. 




One of the videos was 3D!


On another day, we worked in teams to build earthquake-proof structures using only toothpicks and marshmallows! 








Our structures were placed on jello and had to withstand a twenty-second quake!




We also went on a walk to find examples of buildings and structures which seemed to be earthquake proof. 

For example, the buildings/structures below all have cross-bracing - a type of support in which two diagonal lines intersect like the letter "X". 

Can you see where they are?








As we made sense of our learning, we realised that earthquake-proof buildings and structures often share the following characteristics:




See you next time!