Testing the Effects of an Earthquake on the Structural Integrity of a Building

Abstract

(Hand out the Introduction Worksheet. Lead students through the worksheet and have them discuss their responses as a class.) Today, you will work as a group of civil engineers. Each group will belong to a firm that has just been tasked with designing a three-story building in San Francisco for the Bay Area Developers. San Francisco is near the San Andreas fault, which means each firm will have to account for earthquakes in the construction of their model. Each group’s job is to design, build, and test a model of a three-story building in an earthquake zone. After you construct your buildings, they will be placed on a shake table. A wooden cover with a weight (2.5 lbs.) will be placed on top to test whether it stays standing. Then we will shake the building on the table, and you will measure the time it lasts before it breaks during an earthquake. Finally, each group will put together a presentation with their design, cost analysis, and the shake table test results. Each group will compete against the other groups in class to present to the Bay Area Developers in hopes of winning the bid.