Balsa Towers
Students groups use balsa wood and glue to build their own towers using some of the techniques they learned from the associated lesson. While general guidelines are provided, give students freedom with their designs and encourage them to implement what they have learned about structural engineering. The winning team design is the tower with the highest strength-to-weight ratio.
The Sears Tower, Chicago, IL
Civil engineers design and build structures all around us. The bridges, roads, and skyscrapers are all projects that take time to plan, prototype, and create. Students act as if they are civil engineers, and make balsa wood towers to meet a design requirement. They use the engineering design process to brainstorm, design, test and redesign their model towers.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Draw structurally sound 2D designs on paper.
- Construct 3D structures from 2D designs.