To teach some of structural concepts and principles such as bending, shear, building and slenderness, students were to design a Spaghetti Tower.

 

Objectives

-    To build the tallest free-standing tower that support a piece of marshmallow;

-    To Practice the basic engineering principles through a design process that includes thinking, doing, prototyping and iteration;

-    To understand the studtural funcion of some shapes. eg. triangles build strong structures;

-    To understand the effects of compression and tension in a structure;

-    To practice collaboration in design activities;

-    To experience prototyping;

 

Supplies

-    20 sticks of dry spaghetti;

-    One yard of string;

-    A pair of Scissor;

-    On yard of tape;

-    One marshmallow;

-    Scratch papers and pencils to draw sketches.

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Rules

-    The tower should be built by using no more than 20 sticks of spaghetti and one yard of tape and one yard of string;

-    The marshmallow must be on top and cannot be deformed to hold it in place;

-    The structure has to stand firmly on its own; it cannot be propped up, held, or suspended from the ceiling;

-    Teams are free to break the spaghetti and to cut up the tape and string.