Summary: Meet the author and try the riddle.

Lesson Objective: Meeting the author is a great chance to  discuss college readiness with your class.

Teacher support: 

Have you students get their books and turn to the beginning of the earthquake engineering unit.

1. Just focus on the front cover first. read the title to your students, "Earthquake engineering: Structural engineering challenge."

​

Ask: Hmm.. This looks like an interesting chapter. Judging by the cover, what do you think you are going to be doing in this chapter?

Example: Well, the cover says that there is going to be an engineering challenge! I think we are going to get to build something! 

Read the NGSS Metric with your class:

"Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans."

​

Ask: How do natural Earth process impact humans? Can you think of a natural Earth process that can impact humans? What is the impact?

Example: Earthquakes happen naturally and they can cause buildings to fall by shaking them back and forth.

There are other natural processes that effect us to such as severe weather. Hurricanes, floods, tornados and fires can effect us too.

​

2. Now preview the article with your class.

- Give them one minute to flip through the pages of the book and find one thing that is interesting to them. Give them a little time to simply flip through the pages of the chapter and look at the photos and read some of the photo captions. 

​

- Ask each student to share one thing that they found interesting with their shoulder partner. Let them turn to the page with their partner and talk about what they found that was interesting

​

-Then continue the sharing activity with the whole class by inviting a few students to share what they thought was interesting with the class.

​

Ask: Now that you've looked for something interesting, let's see what people have found. Would someone like to share an interesting thing that they found?

​

Example: Some students may share that they thought a particular photo was interesting. Another student might highlight the hands-on activity that they are going to do.

​

Note: This article preview gives you an opportunity to build excitement for the article and the activities in the article. You can explain to the class that they can look forward to being able to do a fun engineering activity in which they get to build an earthquake safe structure. They will be learning about how engineers brace buildings so that they do not fall down in an earthquake.

Summary: Meet the author and try the riddle.

Lesson Objective: Meeting the author is a great chance to  discuss college readiness with your class.

​

Read the author note from Barb with your students.

​

Ask: What does barb say that she does for her job?

Example: Barb says that she breaks stuff for her job. She breaks tough materials like steel and concrete. Then she analyzes why the materials failed.

​

Ask: What would an engineer want to break something and analyze why it failed? What could that accomplish?

​

Example: If you do your best to design something well and then push your design to failure, you may learn how to improve your design. Looking at how your creation breaks can give you clues on what to focus on to make it even better. Something you did not expect may have happened. Only through careful observation of the broken object can you determine what actually went wrong. Then you can start to fix the problems.

Explain: Just like Barb breaks her designs, you will have a chance to be an engineer in this unit! Just like Barb, you are going to get to design and build a model of a building and then you will get to break it and notice how it fails.

Read the author message from Beth and Jake: 

​

Ask: Beth and Jake mentioned that in one of their jobs they mapped faults. What is a fault?

​

Explain: It’s okay if you do not know what a fault is yet because we will be going over faults later in the learning unit.

Example: A fault is a place where the ground slips during an earthquake. Land on either side of a fault can slip, rise or fall.  When a fault actually moves, that causes earthquake that people can feel for miles around.ials failed.

​

Explain: Have you ever seen section of sidewalk that rises up and creates a big crack or bump that is difficult to roll over with a skateboard, or that could create a tripping hazard? That is similar to a fault in that the ground moved in a place where you would expect it to stay still. For the sidewalk crack, a tree root is most likely putting pressure on the sidewalk to make it move. For a fault, it is our moving continents that cause faults to build up pressure and move.

Solve the riddle: Allow your students a few minutes to try to solve the riddle. Read it together and ask them to think of an answer. They can check every line of the riddle and compare it to the answer that they thought of. Ask them to take a few notes in the white space on the page to list three reasons why they think their answer is correct. Allow students to share their answer with the class and explain why they think their answer is correct.

Class video: Meet Barb

Meet Barb, a structural engineer. Meet her cat Tesela too!

Summary: Read and discuss.

Lesson Objective: On this map, students will look for areas that plates are pushing against each other. Draw arrows on the board pointing together so it is clear what they will be searching for. 

Ask: What does this map show us?

Example: This map shows us the direction that each of earth’s plates is moving.

​

Ask: What does each colored block represent on the map?

Example: Each colored block represents a tectonic plate, or a large piece of land that is moving very slowly.

​

Explain: Ooh… Tectonic plate! That is one of the science vocabulary words that we will be learning in this chapter. Let’s read the definition of a tectonic plate again so that we can better understand what this diagram is showing us.

Ask: so, the text says that Earth’s continents are moving. How fast or slow do they move? How much do they move every year?

Example: The text says that the Earth’s plates are slowly moving. They only move 2 to 5 centimeters per year.

​

Ask: Look at the diagram, What direction are Earth’s plates moving?

Example: Earth’s plates are moving in many different directions. Some of them are moving towards each other, or colliding. Other continents are sliding past each other, and in other places they are spreading apart from each other.

​

Explain: let’s look for some examples of these different types of movement.

​

Ask: so, the text says that Earth’s continents are moving. How fast or slow do they move? How much do they move every year?

Example: The text says that the Earth’s plates are slowly moving. They only move 2 to 5 centimeters per year.

​

Ask: Can you find a place where the plates are colliding?

Example: Look at India on the map. The purple Indian plate is colliding with the Eurasian plate. This collision is pushing up the tallest mountains in the world.

​

Watch this video with your class to show them what happens when plates collide.

Class video: Colliding plates caused the formation of mount Everest

This video shows an animation of two continental plates colliding to form a mountain range.

Ask: How much did the video say that Mt Everest grows per year?

Example: ¼ inch per year.

​

Ask: How long do they think that it took for mount Everest to be pushed up?

Example: About 50 million years.

Summary: Review the earthquake map of the world with your class

Lesson objective:  Guide your students in interpreting the map

Explain: On this map, you are looking at areas on earth that earthquakes occur. First, let’s take a look at the map key. The first place you want to look when you are reviewing a scientific chart is the key so you can know what to look for on the map

​

Ask: What does the size of the dots represent on the map?

Example: The size of the dot indicates how large or small the earthquake was. The larger the dot, the bigger the earthquake.

​

Ask: What does the color of the dot mean in this chart?

Example: The color of the dot also represents the size of the earthquake. Yellow small dots are tiny earthquakes. Orange and red dots indicate that a destructive earthquake occurred in that location. A black dot shows that an extremely destructive earthquake happened at that location.

Example: About 50 million years.

Ask: What does the location of the dot represent?

Example: The location of the dot shows where the earthquake happened on the globe.

​

Explain: The location of the dot shows where the earthquake started. We call this the epicenter. The epicenter of the earthquake is the location where the earth’s plates actually slipped, moved, or released pressure.

Although this is where the earthquake started, the earthquake was likely felt by a much bigger area. Earthquakes can be felt hundreds or ever thousands of miles from the place that they originated from.

Earthquakes also do the most damage near the epicenter. The farther away you are from the epicenter, the less you feel the quaking and shaking of the ground

​

Ask: Where are the most dangerous places to live on Earth with respect to earthquakes?

Example: Although California is at risk of serous earthquakes, it could be worse! Look at the west coast of South America. They have had the most destructive earthquakes of anywhere in the world! Alaska, Japan, and the pacific islands north or Australia are also dangerous places to live with respect to earthquakes. It seems like the most likely places to have an earthquake are on the coast, or the edge of a continental land mass. In other words, if you live near the beach, you are more likely to see an earthquake than if you live inland.

​

Ask: Where are some of the least likely places on earth to have an earthquake?

Example: It seems like anywhere bordering the Atlantic ocean is least likely to have an earthquake, so, Eastern USA, Eastern South America, West Africa and West Europe. It also seems like living in the center of a continent is a very safe place to live if you don’t want to feel an earthquake.

​

Ask: Do you see any patterns in where earthquakes occur?

Example: I see many earthquakes on shore lines and in the middle of the ocean between continents.

​

Ask: Do you see a correlation between the plate boundary map on the previous page and the earthquakes on this page? What pattern do you see?

Example: Here are three different correlations:

1. Earthquakes happen on plate boundaries.

2. More earthquakes, and larger earthquakes, happen where plates converge, or crash into each other. Look for lines pointing toward each other. Look at the Filipino Plate, The Indian Plate, The Nazca Plate and the South American Plate. These plates are all having head on collisions with the plates in their area

3. Less earthquakes, and smaller earthquakes happen in places where plates are moving away from each other. Look in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean to see where plates are spreading or moving away from each other.

​

​

Summary: Read and discuss  

Lesson objective:  Discuss the Earth’s layers

Ask: How hot is the center of the Earth? How does that compare to the temperature of the surface of the Sun?

Example: The Earth is 5,400 degrees Celsius. That is about as hot as the surface of the Sun.

Explain: (Here is a little more interesting information to support that statement:

The surface of the Sun is 5,505 degrees Celsius (That is 9,941 degrees Fahrenheit). Keep in mind, that really hot, but the inside of the Sun is even hotter. We estimate that the inside of the sun can reach temperatures as high as 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. So, way, way hotter.

But the center of the Earth is still really hot. Just to put into perspective, because we don’t experience temperatures like this in everyday life, look at this chart to see how hot stuff is.

Temperature of hot things:

An operating car engine-        220 °F

Bake cookies in the oven-       350 °F

A burning match-                    700 °F

The surface of Venus-            900 °F

Molten Rock-                          2,400 °F

Steel melts to liquid-              2,500 °F

Tungsten metal melts-           6,192 °F

The center of the Earth-         9,941 °F

The surface of the Sun-          9,941 °F

The center of the Sun-            27,000,000 °F

​

​

Ask: Why do Earth’s plates move?

Example: Earth’s plates move because fluid below the Earth’s crust is moving and circulating. The crust is floating on the molten rock liquid below it.

Summary: Read and discuss  

Lesson objective:  Discuss where volcanoes form

​

Ask: What types of land formations are caused by moving tectonic plates or moving continents?

Example: Mountains, valleys, trenches, ridges, and volcanos

​

Ask: Where do volcanoes usually form in relation to continental plates boundaries?

Example: Volcanoes form where continental plates dive underneath each other.

Ask: Are you more likely to find a volcano in the center of a continent or near the edge?

Example: You would be more likely to find a volcano near the edge of a continent, not in the middle of a continent.

Summary: Read and discuss  

Lesson objective:  Discuss faults and their relation to earthquakes

​

Ask: Look at the photo of the Piqiang fault in china. Use the map distance key to estimate how far the fault has slipped. How far do you think it slipped? How do you know?

Example: The fault looks like it slipped sbout 4 km. I think it slipped that far because I measured in between the red layer on both sides of the fault. The red layer was the easiest layer for me to pick out on both sides of the fault. It looks like 2 of the 2 km bars could be stacked to measure the distance of the fault movement.

​

Ask: What is a fault?

Example: A fault is a place where the earth moves and causes an earthquake.

​

Ask: What does a fault look like?

Example: The photo of the crack in the road is a good example of what a fault looks like. After an earthquake, the fault looks like a big crack in the ground.  In other faults, like where plates converge, or crash together, the fault would be a mountain range. Where plates diverge, or move apart, a fault might look like a trench.

This video shows an animation of two continental plates colliding to form a mountain range.

Summary: Read and discuss  

Lesson objective:  Discuss earthquakes

​

Ask: Has anybody here ever experienced an earthquake? What was it like? What did you feel?

Example: Answers will vary

Explain: The Mexico City earthquake was very destructive. A part of Mexico City is shown in the photo on this page of the book. This cellphone photo was provided by the two boys in the STEMTaught video who went to provide disaster relief to the earthquake victems. A friend of theirs who lived in Mexico city took this photo.

Ask: Can you see the dust clouds in the background in the city? What so the dust clouds mean?

Example: The dust clouds show where buildings collapsed during the earthquake.

Ask: Judging from the photo, does it look like the earthquake caused a serious problem for the people of Mexico city?

Example: Yes, it looks like a serious problem. There is a lot of dust in the photo.

Explain: we can minimize the damage that earthquakes cause to buildings with proper engineering and good building techniques and regulations. Regulations are rules. The most important rule for building earthquake safe structures is to use steel reinforced concrete. If concrete does not have steel inside of it, it can crack, break and crumble to pieces. Steel can hold a building together so that even if the concrete cracks the building does not tumble all the way to the ground. Engineers who design earthquake safe building techniques can save many human lives by designing safe building techniques.

Class video: Earthquake Disaster relief in Mexico city

Meet two students who traveled to Mexico City to provide disaster relief after the earthquake. Listen to their experience.

Summary: Read and discuss  

Lesson objective:  Discuss forces, tension, and compression

​

Teacher support: 

​

Ask: What is a force?

Example: a push or a pull.

Ask: What pushing and pulling forces happen to buildings in an earthquake?

Example: The earthquake shakes the building because the ground is moving. The pushing and pulling is caused by the ground movement. Then to make matters worse, the weight of the building pushes and pulls as the building sways back and forth in the earthquake. The heavier the building, the harder the push or the pull on the building’s structure.

Ask: What is another way that you can describe tension?

Example: Tension causes an object to be stretched, or pulled apart.

Ask: What is another way that you can describe compression?

Example: Compression causes an object to be squished, or pushed together.

Ask: When a beam in a building fails under compression, what is it called? What does it look like?

Example: Compressional failure is called buckling. A buckled member bends like an elbow. This type of failure is really bad. If the beam should be straight and strong, and then it bends or buckles, the building could fall over because that beam can no longer support weight.

​

Ask: How does concrete deal with compressional forces and forces of tension?

Example: Concrete is known to be extremely strong under compression. Under tension it is not as strong and tends to crack.  

Explain: We use concrete as a foundation for houses because concrete does so well under compression. Houses are heavy and the weight of a house provides a compressional force to the foundation all the time. Remember concrete likes being squished but it hates being stretched

Ask: How does steel deal with compressional forces and forces of tension?

Example: Steel is known to be extremely strong under tension. Under compression it is not as strong and tends to buckle.  

Explain: We use steel to reinforce concrete to make concrete earthquake safe. When concrete has steel cast inside it, the structural member handles both tension and compression well. You get the best of both worlds–the best of steel and the best of concrete.

Class video: Tension Compression and Buckling

Barb explains how a beam can fail by buckling

Summary: Continue 

​

Lesson Objective: Discuss what happened to loads on the building as the building sways back and forth.

​

Teacher support: 

Ask: Does a building’s structure usually experience tension or compression during an earthquake?

Example: The structural member experiences both tension and compression. Remember, when the building sways to one side, a structural member is pulled in tension, then when the building sways the other way, it is loaded in compression. So, during an earthquake, different parts of the building are in tension and compression at the same time, and every part experiences a switch from tension to compression every second or so, however long it takes the building to sway from one way to the other.

Ask: What causes the direction of the loading to switch on a building during an earthquake?

Example: The direction and type of load switches as the building’s structural members as the building sways back and forth.

Summary: Read and discuss 

Lesson objective:  Discuss the need for bracing structures

​

Teacher support: 

Explain: Tesela the cat is Barb’s cat. Tesela is a rescue cat that loves to play and chase string. Look what happens to the earthquake structure.

Ask: Look at the illustration of Tesela the cat pushing on the earthquake structure? Do you think the structure will be strong enough? Why or why not?

Example: I think it may not be strong enough because the square is hollow. There is nothing inside the square to support the pushing force.

​

Ask: How could you make the structure stronger for the cat to push on?

Example: You could do a lot of things to make the square structure stronger.  You could put walls on it. You could fill it with something. Or you could attach a stick inside.

​

Explain: You could even go inside the box and push against where the cat is pushing to counteract the cat’s push and support the box. If you got tired of sitting there pushing, you could prop up a stick inside the box to resist the cat’s push for you.  The stick would be called a brace and it would be attached diagonally from one corner of the box to the other corner.

Summary: Read and discuss 

Lesson objective:  Discuss bracing

​

Teacher support: 

Ask: What is a brace? Can you explain it to me?

Example: A brace is an extra structural member that is added to a building or structure to make it a little stronger.

​

Summary: Read about cross bracing

Lesson objective:  Discuss and demonstrate cross bracing

​

Ask: Can you find any examples of braces in your classroom or school yard?

​

Teacher support: Look all over your classroom. Underneath tables and chairs and desk you should be able to find braces that make the table and chair legs attachments more sturdy. You will also see braces on the basketball standard in the gymnasium. If the roof trusses or framing are visible, you will see braces there too.

​

Class video: Earthquake Engineering Building Retrofit

Barb explains other techniques that engineers can use to protect buildings during an earthquake.

Summary: Vocabulary review   

Lesson objective:  Review vocabulary words

​

Summary: Build day   

Lesson objective:  Allow your students time to build their earthquake safe structures out of straws

​

Teacher support: Your students are tasked with building an earthquake safe structure out of straws. The objective is for them to experiment with and design a structure using braces.

Materials needed:

• One box of straws per group. (50 straws minimum)

• One box paper clips per group or Building Barbs to fasten the straws together

• A board or tray to use as a shake table

• Two dowels to use as rollers to roll the shake table back and forth on

• Three Tedros test tubes to use as water weights for the structure

• One messie measuring tape to measure the base of their structure

​

Timeline overview:

Lab session 1 (1 hr)- Begin to build the earthquake safe models

Lab session 2 (1 hr)- Continue to build the model structures

Lab session 1 (1 hr)- Shake day: Shake and break the structures, then analyze why they broke.

Teacher Support Video: Earthquake Engineering Hands-on Lab

Teacher Support: Watch this video to prepare for the earthquake engineering hands-on lab.

Quick tips for a successful lab:   

Build with Paper clips or Barbs:  Depending on what supplies you have at your school, your students can use paperclips or Building barbs to fasten their straws together.

Tape Joints:    Students may need to tape the joints so that their straws don’t pull apart at the joints when loaded in tension.

The Structures must fit on the shake table: Remind your students before they begin building that they will need to have a structure with a base that fits on the shake table. Show them the little board that you will be using as a shake table. Trace it’s outline on the white board so that students can compare their structure to the shake table size.

​

Allow creativity:  Don’t give your students too many constraints other than their structure has to be two straws tall and must fit onto the shake table.

Weight the structures before you shake:   Straws are very light. To simulate the weight of the building, have your students tape water filled Tedros test tubes to the model structure. The water weights simulate the weight of the building and causes stress when the model building sways back and forth.

You only need two shake table platforms:   Your students can build in groups of two or three, so you may have many groups of students but you only need two or three shake table platforms. One that is being used by a group as the rest of the class claps and cheers as a group shakes and breaks their structure, and another for the next group to be preparing to shake. While one group shakes, the next group can tape their foundation down to their shake table.

​

Set your shake table on rollers: To shake the shake table back and forth, you will need to set it on rollers. You can use the dowels provided by STEMTaught, or if you can’t find those, just use a couple pencils. The group shaking their structure will shake their structure back and forth while the rest of the class claps the cadence for them to shake at (Slow, medium, and fast).

​

​

Ask: Why might you want to tape the joints of your structure?

Example: So, the joints don’t come apart when I shake.

Ask: Why might you want to do a gentle test shake of the weighted structure before the final shake day?

Example: To see if you can fix a construction problem. Remember, we want to test how the structural members and braces fail, not how a joint pulls apart. You want your joints to stay together.

Ask: How big or small should you make the base of your structure?

Example: The base must be small enough to fit on the shake table.

Ask: When will you tape your structure to the shake table?

Example: Right before you shake on shake day. Remember, the whole class will share two shake trays.

Ask: Why do you need to add weight to your structure?

Example: To simulate the weight of the building. If you shake with a straw structure with no weight attached, your structure will not be stressed and it will not break.

Ask: How will you attach weight to your structure?

Example: We will fill Tedros test tubes with water and tape them to the structure. Try to distribute the weight evenly throughout the structure.

Summary: Write and answer questions   

Lesson objective:  Fill out the Earthquake Engineering Report

​

This is your student’s chance to show what they know and show off their design.  Go through the questions with them on these pages and fill out all the information.

​

Summary: Writing Workshop   

Lesson objective:  Allow your students to write

​

Select the writing prompts that you are most interested in. This is a chance for your students to show what they know. 

​

​

​