Simple Snow Load Roof Model Demo: Which Roof Is Tops?
When you look around your neighborhood, what do the roofs look like? What if you lived in an area with a different climate, how might that affect the style of roofs that you see? Through this introductory engineering activity, students consider the advantages of different roof shapes for different climates or situations. During a teacher demo, they observe and discuss what happens when a "snow load" (sifted cups of flour) is placed on three different model roof shapes. A student worksheet is included.
Look at all the different roof top shapes!Copyright 2011 Darren Po, Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Florence_rooftops.jpg
Civil engineers always consider the climate of the area in which they plan to design and build structures. They consider the types of natural disasters that the area is prone to having. The design and materials chosen for a building's roof help to maintain the desired temperature within the building and provide a stable structure to protect against the local weather conditions. Engineers use models to test the shapes, materials and functionality of their designs.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Understand that materials, both natural and human-made, have specific characteristics that determine their suitable use.
- Understand that engineering design requires creative thinking and consideration of a variety of ideas to solve practical problems.
- Explain why climate and natural disasters have an impact of how engineers design buildings and structures.