January 28, 2015 – Ms. Argue's Class

We have finished up our very fun and exciting unit on Strong and Stable Structures! Students had a great time exploring and building different structures throughout this unit. We have been reviewing is class what students need to know for the test in class by putting sticky notes on the pages in their orange science duotang that they should review at home. Today in class, students got a sheet that had some review questions on it that they had to answer with a partner to practice for the test tomorrow. Here are the questions that students got to work on in class today:

Write definitions for the following words: structure, strength, stability, load.

Make a list of three natural structures and three man-made structures.

In class, we did an experiment with cardboard tubes of different heights. What did we learn about stability by doing this experiment?

In class, we tried to build towers out of 50 cue cards. What were two things that students did well with their tower design to make it so tall and stable?

In class, we did an experiment where we attempted to increase the stability of a cardboard tube. What did we learn about stability by doing this experiment? (How can you increase the stability of tall objects?)

In class, we did an experiment with spaghetti noodles and marshmellows. What did you learn about strength from that experiment? How can you reinforce, or make structures stronger?

What properties of material do you need to consider when building the following: a) a car tire; b) a backpack; c) a roof for a house in Kanata, d) a baseball bat.

After the winter holidays, we tested several structures made from recycled materials (pizza boxes and empty paper towel and toilet paper rolls). Explain how some structures were able to hold up more than 30 math textbooks! What was it about their design that made them so strong? Use words like: struts, ties, layers, pillars, posts, beams, balanced, materials, tension, compression, torsion, etc. in your answer.

Mr. Brian Johnson, a structural engineer, came in to talk to all of the grade 3’s about his job. What are some things he does as a structural engineer?

I hope this helps in making sure your child has a good understanding of the concepts we covered in class! Please email me if you have any questions!

THANKS!

Ms. Argue 🙂

Yesterday in class students got a chance to build a cube using marshmellows and raw spaghetti noodles! Students first built a regular cube and tested it to see how much weight it could hold. Students discovered that most of their cubes could only hold a few pieces of paper or none at all.

Students were then allowed to reinforce their structures using struts and ties (see purple sheet in their science duotang). A strut is a beam or bar used to stop two parts of a structure from being pushed together. A tie is a beam or bar used to stop two parts of a structure from being pulled apart. We then re-tested their structures to see if add reinforcements made the structure stronger. Students then had to answer 2 discussion questions about whether or not their rebuild was a success and what they learned about increasing strength in a structure.

Here are some pictures of students reinforcing their structures using ties and struts.