Test & Improve: Making Tall & Strong Recycled Towers
Students learn about material reuse by designing and building the strongest and tallest towers they can using only recycled materials. Teams brainstorm, sketch the best design and create the towers to meet the design constraints. Then they test their towers in earthquake and high-wind simulations, followed by redesigning, rebuilding and retesting.
A completed "recycled tower."
As the movement to reduce, reuse and recycle gains momentum, many engineers have become increasingly focused on incorporating reused and recycled materials into building designs. Civil, mechanical and environmental engineers work together to find ways to reuse materials in new homes and buildings without sacrificing function, comfort, beauty or reliability.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Select a solution consistent with given constraints and explain why it was chosen.
- Describe the steps of the engineering design process.
- Collect information to evaluate the solution for a design problem.