Year 6 Earthquakes

In Year Six we were working on seismic events, which are earthquakes and tsunamis. We finished our whole unit off with a huge earthquake tower challenge!

We had a day and a half to build a two-storey tower out of paper straws, paperclips, pins and 2 metres of string in groups. We also had to meet measurement requirements. We got to journal it any way we wanted, so some groups typed theirs up like a diary whilst other groups chose to record a time-lapse of them building their structures. We were graded by a point system, and the most points you could get was 75.

First we had to draw a plan and picture the structure in our imaginations. Since the two storeys had to be at least 18cm, we measured the straws and saw how long they are. They were exactly 18cm, which was very convenient for us. Then we had to get our plan approved by the "planning approval committee" (Mr Weirenga or Mrs Judd). For a twist, each group had five tokens (which were individually worth 5 points), and we could trade them with a teacher to get either more materials or one minute help from a teacher.  Then we started the long process of building our tower.

When we finished building, we had to put our building on an earthquake simulator, immediately there were 10 points on offer if our building could stand by itself and meet the measurement requirements. If a building could hold a juice box it would get some points. If it survived a mild earthquake (with the juice box still on it) we would get points as well. If our structure was still standing, we would try a major earthquake. Only one tower was left standing after that!

Even though planning and building the structure was hard, we all pulled through and got our buildings ready for the big day. We all had so much fun, and we really recommend it to the current Year 5 students.

Aaliyah Onwuegbuzie

Year 6 White