When you walk or drive around your neighborhood what do the roofs look like? What if you lived in an area with a different climate, how would that effect the style of roof that you might find. This is an introductory activity to explore the advantages of different roof shapes for different climates or situations.

Civil engineers must always consider the climate of the area in which they plan to build their structures. The design and material chosen for the roof of a building can help in maintaining the appropriate temperature within the building and providing a stable structure to protect against the weather. climate roofs design Materials both natural and human-made have specific characteristics which determine how they will be used. Engineering design requires creative thinking and consideration of a variety of ideas to solve practical problems. 3 shoeboxes or similar container 1 poster board 1 newspaper About 2 cups of flour Flour sifter or sieve (optional) What shape is the roof on your house? What is the climate where you live? Can you think of reasons why the climate would influence the shape of your roof? Imagine you lived in an area that received a lot of snow. A major issue that architects and engineers must think about is snow building up on a roof. If the roof is not strong enough, the weight of the snow may cause the roof to cave in. As an engineer designing a roof in a snowy climate, what roof shapes would you consider to prevent snow from building up on the roof? What types of materials would you use to build your roof to help prevent snow from sticking to the roof? A model is a copy of an object that is too big, too small, or too complicated to study easily. Engineers use models to test and study how well things are built or to test different designs. A load to an engineer is any force that pushes or pulls. For example: the weight of snow pushes down on a building, creating a snow load. A wind load pushes on the sides of a building. Cut away one end of the box so that students can view the effects of a snow load. Use poster board to make three different types of roofs, one for each shoe box; curved, A-frame, and flat (see Roof Shapes Worksheet). Using a single piece of masking tape, tape each edge of the roof to the open top of the shoebox. Place newspaper under the testing station to catch any loose flour. You may want to place a cookie sheet under the box so that loose flour can be used in the next test. Obtain flour and containers to hold about 2 cups of flour. A flour sieve would be a nice tool to have available. Gather picture of different types of roof to show the class. Show the class picture of different styles of roofs, talk with the students about what types of climates these roofs might be found in. What characteristics make a roof, ok for a given climate? Show the class the example roofs that you created, explain to them that the flour will represent snow and have them make predictions as to which roof would be best for a snowy climate? Slowly sprinkle "snow" onto the center of the roof. Keep watching the roof through the open end of the box. Have the students make observations as the snow is applied to the roof. Caution: To avoid a flour storm carefully lift the roof and gently tap the bottom so that the flour falls into the shoe box. Pour the flour from the shoe box into a container to be used for the next test. Roof Shape Worksheet (doc) Roof Shape Worksheet (pdf) Predict which types of roofs will cave in to snow the easiest? Why? Does the "snow" pile up or slide off? Which roofs sag? What does the sagging mean? Which roofs fall down? Do they fall slowly or all at once? In addition to snow loads, what other things should we worry about? Which roof would you choose if you lived in a snowy area? A windy area? Rainy? Rubric for Performance Assessment (doc) Rubric for Performance Assessment (pdf)