Free Standing Structure

Learners demonstrate basic construction skills by building a free standing structure. They compute the cost of the structure.

What kind of design challenges are there in building structures to support rocket engines? The unit takes design teams through the process of building the lightest possible thrust support structure that can withstand the necessary forces...

A fun and challenging activity for nearly any age group, partners must work together to build the tallest structure possible using paper clips, straws, and pipe cleaners. In addition to being tall, the structure must also be able to...

In this tower building and budgeting instructional activity, students attempt to meet the goal of building the tallest free standing structure on the smallest budget. They build the structures with straw, paper clips, and masking tape...

How high can you go? In a STEM design challenge, teams design and build a structure using only dowel rods and rubber bands. The goal is to build the tallest freestanding structure using all of the dowel rods. Teams present their designs...

Students analyze critical load and how to reinforce the design of a structure to hold more weight. They examine basic structures and which materials to select. They create a prototype to hold more and more weight.

Students observe geometric relationships in buildings and structures. They reason why structures are constructed in a specific way by applying geometric concepts. They construct a shelter using their geometric knowledge.

Individuals discover how to draw cubes on triangle-dot paper. They use cubes to build structures and draw corresponding isometric drawings on dot paper in the second lesson of the series of five. The activity also introduces the concept...

Students investigate how to create a free standing structure. In this mathematics lesson, small groups of students demonstate how to build the tallest structure while spending the least amount of money on materials.

Emergent engineers plan, construct, and experiment with a spaghetti noodle structure that could be used to hold a load. Set them up for success by first showing them a four-minute video on engineering design and a slide show of different...