Problem/Purpose

How can we build a structure
that is earthquake resistant?
What
materials can you use to
make a structure earthquake
resistant?
Our research…
The research that we did helped us create different types of buildings that
might be earthquake resistant. Fah’s research explained that if you use
strong and flexible materials, then that will make the best earthquake
resistant building because the building wont crack or break down, and it
wont easily fall. Further more, Aziza’s research was about how Haiti
needs to rebuild their structures to make them earthquake resistant
because just recently (2010) they had a 7.0 earthquake that destroyed
many homes, if these homes had been earthquake resistant there might
have been less deaths and destroyed homes. Additionally, Gaby’s
research was about making structures that will hold down in an
earthquake. Lastly, Ben’s research was about testing to see if wood is
earthquake resistant.
Hypothesis

By combining this research we predict that if we build one structure
using a heavy material like cardboard, then that structure will be
the most earthquake resistant by having the largest amount of
rubber band pulls without falling down.

Independent Variable: The materials that we use to build each
structure and the force of the earthquake.

Dependent Variable: How long each structure will last (how many
times we pull the rubber band) before it falls down based on the
materials that are used to build each structure.
Materials

15 plastic straws

6 square pieces of cardboard

1 roll of duct tape
8

sticks
5 small pieces of clay
Procedures
1.
Build a cardboard cube with 6 pieces of cardboard
2.
Build a cone out of 15 straws and tape where all the straws meet
3.
Build a square pyramid put the clay at each vertex
4.
Put a structure on the shake table , pull rubber band until the
structure falls
5.
Record data (how many pulls the the structure stayed up) and
repeat step four again for each structure
DATA
Type of
structure
(Indep. V.)
Trial 1
(amount of
shakes)
Trial 2
(amount of
shakes)
Trial 3
(amount of
shakes)
Average
Cardboard
10 shakes
29 shakes 15 shakes 18 shakes
Straw
Teepee
2 shakes
1 shake
2 shakes
Sticks &
Clay
13 shakes
2 shakes
52 shakes 22 shakes
1.6shakes
60
50
40
Cardboard
30
Straws
20
Sticks & Clay
10
0
Trial 1
Trial 2
Trial 3
Average
60
50
40
Trial 1
30
Trial 2
Trial 3
20
Averages
10
0
Cardboard
Straws
Sticks & Clay
Bibliography

Author unknown. ”Building To The Limits”. Science Museum. Date page was
created unknown. October 18,
2011.http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/building/

Perkins, Sid. "Rocking the House." Science News for Kids. Northrop
Grumman Foundation, 22 Jan. 2007. Web. 15 Feb. 2012.
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2007/01/rocking-the-house-3/
 We
hypothesized that if we build one structure using a
heavy material like cardboard, then that structure will be
the most earthquake resistant by having the largest
amount of rubber band pulls without falling down. Our
hypothesis was not supported by our data because the
sticks and clay structure was more earthquake resistant
and had an average of 22 shakes, while the cardboard
had an average of 18 shakes without falling.
 One
part of our experiment that we would change is the
construction of our straw structure. This is because the
straws were all different lengths, so the structure
wouldn’t even stand up, which made it an unfair
experiment.
 We’d
also make the dependent variable not how many
shakes the structure could hold up, but how long the
structures would stay up. We would want to see if there
were higher or lower result with time.
 The
results relate to the real world because
the results showed the structure that was
strong and flexible (sticks and clay
structure) performed better than the
stronger, less flexible material under the
pressure of the earthquake. That shows
that strong, but flexible materials perform
the best in a real-life earthquake.
THE END!!! 