Students explore various styles of bracing to shift the resonant frequency of a building and consider the best design for dampening shaking of buildings.
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NGSS Performance Expectations
Summary of Module Activities
Classroom Activity #1 - Science Investigation: Shapes in Motion
Students investigate how size, weight and weight distribution affect a simple two-dimensional object's response to oscillatory motion (shaking).
Classroom Activity #2 - Engineering Design: Structural Support
Students examine images of various three-dimensional engineered objects then iteratively design and build a structure that can support the weight of a small book as high above the desk/table as possible.
MOXI Field Trip - Engineering Design Challenge: Stop the Swaying!
Students are challenged to design and test modifications to models of buildings to reduce swaying during a simulated earthquake using MOXI’s shaker tables.
Classroom Activity #3 - Reflection: Measuring Motion
In the post-field trip classroom activity, students reflect on their field trip designs and construct bar graphs of the back-and-forth motion of the ground during an earthquake and compare the motion of the simulated earthquakes during their field trip to the motion of an actual earthquake recorded on a seismograph.