Building Construction Teacher Resources
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Building construction doesn’t begin with breaking ground and excavating a site. Whether building a skyscraper, a home, or a monument, builders must consider the suitability of the construction site, environmental factors like earthquakes and tsunamis (geography, earth science), the properties of building materials (physics, structural engineering), the aesthetics of a design (visual arts, architecture), and the budget (math). There are blueprints to read, costs to be factored, schedules to be drawn up. In short, building construction involves all the subject areas.
Young architects try their hand at designing everything from a Native American home to building a skyscraper and even constructing a tower of pasta. Or, how about crafting a new home for the three little pigs? Challenge high schoolers to design a structure that will foster an even temperature throughout the day or use trigonometry and ratios to build a model home. Whether building medieval castles, skyscrapers, or family dwellings, the lesson plans, activities, and videos in our collection are sure to inspire your young architects.
Showing 48 resources
Curated OER
The BEAM Project: Building Efficient Architectural Models
Technology or engineering teams are given a task to design, construct, and test the efficiency of a structure that will foster an even temperature throughout an entire sunny day. Intended as a long-term project, pupils research, plan,...
Curated OER
Surveying and Assessing the Environmental Compatibility of a Building Construction Site
Students examine an area of land and assess its suitability for construction purposes. This project requires a vast amount of hands-on experimentation, data analysis, community involvement, and job shadowing/career awareness.
Skyscraper Museum
Building a Skyscraper
Creating buildings that reach hundreds of feet into the sky is no easy task. The third instructional activity in this series begins with four activities that engage young architects in exploring the major challenges that are faced when...
TED-Ed
Building the Seed Cathedral
Watch this inspiring TED Talk by architect Thomas Heatherwick on the creation of the Seed Cathedral. Heatherwick tells a story of innovation and sustainability through displaying five recent projects his firm has worked on. Your learners...
North Carolina State University
Construction
Engineering design projects serve as great opportunities for collaborative problem solving. In this case, students work in small groups designing, building, and eventually testing a structure that meets a teacher-specified objective. It...
Radford University
Building a House
Ever dream of becoming an architect? Here's your chance to give it a try. After reviewing facts about triangles and quadrilaterals, pupils learn about the basics of architecture by talking to an architect or housing expert. They use...
Curated OER
TE Activity: Survive That Tsunami!
Students examine the causes of tsunamis and observe a table top wave making machine. They make model houses while working in groups so that the can see how different construction types work. They discuss how engineers can design and...
Curated OER
Native American Homes
Fifth graders research and create a model of a Native American home. In pairs, they conduct research on a selected type of Native American home, then draw designs for their building construction. Students then construct their model...
Curated OER
Leaning Tower of Pasta
Students experiment with different structures to determine which ones are able to handle the greatest amount of load using spaghetti and marshmallows. They discuss how engineers design buildings, construct their buildings and complete a...
Curated OER
Building Up, Breaking Down
Students investigate how rocks are modified into construction materials. In this building up and breaking down lesson plan, students explore what happens to building materials over time and how people modify natural materials. Students...
Curated OER
Properties Of Building Materials
Learners investigate the concept of building materials and how they are used to create different things. They focus upon the availability, cost, flexibility, and strength of different building materials. This is done by taking part in a...
Curated OER
Designing And Costing Your Pool
Students engage in a lesson plan that uses applied mathematics to find the solution to the design of a pool for a home. They design the pool based upon scale measurements that include perimeter and area of the pool area, water volume,...
Discovery Education
Exploring Geometry
Middle schoolers construct a three-dimensional model of a city using both similar and congruent figures and geometric transformations. City must have at least ten buildings with each building labeled and may be constructed out of paper...
Science Matters
Earthquake Building/Shaking Contest
Japan is one of only a handful of countries that constructs buildings that are almost earthquake proof. The 13th activity in the 20-part series challenges scholars to build structures to test against earthquakes. With limited materials...
Discovery Education
Discovering Math: Exploring Geometry
Apply geometric properties and formulae for surface area and volume by constructing a three-dimensional model of a city. Learners use similar and congruent figures and transformations to create a city of at least 10 buildings. They trade...
Curated OER
Good Old Earth Materials
Students investigate different types of building structures and how they are able to stand up to earthquakes. Through comparison they determine which buildings are better able to handle earthquakes than others. They create a building,...
Skyscraper Museum
What is a Skyscraper?
Skyscrapers are amazing feats of architectural design that create the iconic skylines of the world's biggest cities. Young architects explore the defining characteristics of these monstrous towers with the first instructional activity in...
Curated OER
Building a School Model: An Academic Challenge
First and second graders explore aspects of design. They discuss and design the ideal classroom building complete with window and door placement. Additionally, students observe and note features found in neighboring classrooms as...
Teach Engineering
Battle of the Beams
Make the strongest beam possible using taffy? Groups mold a taffy-water mixture into a beam and a reinforcing material of their choice. To finish the final installment of a two-part series, participants test its strength by adding...
Science Matters
Earthquakes and Volcanoes Post Assessment
The final lesson in the 20-part series is a post assessment covering earthquakes and volcanoes. Twenty-three questions incorporate each of the previous lessons through multiple choice, justified multiple choice, expanded multiple choice,...
Curated OER
The Laws of Sines and Cosines Made Simple!
Students study the law of sine and cosine. In this pre-calculus instructional activity, students create a triangle and identify the different ratios of a non-right triangle. They use the properties of sine and cosine to solve.
Curated OER
Technical Writing Assignment
Students demonstrate, in writing, the proper technique to measure, square, and cut a piece of stock to length using a circular saw.
Curated OER
Housing: Types of Shelters
Students experiment with the construction of shelters and the various types of architectural designs. In this shelters lesson plan, students draw the building they live in. Students compare and contrast buildings made today...
Curated OER
Keep on Standing!!
Learners conduct research on the Internet about earthquakes and buildings that have withstood them. They suggest designs for future buildings. They create models of their suggested designs. Their models are tested in an earthquake...
