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...
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 lesson in this four-part...
Skyscraper Museum
Building a Skyscraper
The construction of skyscrapers is no simple undertaking, involving the careful coordination and planning of many different people. The third instructional activity in this series explores this detailed process by first teaching children...
Museum of Science
Skyscraper Engineering
The sky's the limit when learning about engineering. Future engineers conduct an activity to learn about forces associated with skyscrapers. They design and build a model of a skyscraper from basic household materials, then test their...
Skyscraper Museum
Changes in a City Over Time
Investigate the growth and development of New York City with the final lesson in this four-part series on skyscrapers. Learners first explore the concept of urban growth by looking closely at a series of three paintings made of Wall...
Curated OER
Skyscrapers: Engineering Up!
Students build their own newspaper skyscrapers with limited materials and time. They identify several different structural engineering principles relating to skyscrapers. They explain how their towers resisted the wind load.
Curated OER
Skyscrapers
Students engineer their way through a hands-on science activity. In this architecture lesson plan, students examine dead loads and wind loads as they participate in the Skyscraper Challenge.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Sky High
How are skyscrapers built? What does it take to make a structurally sound building? How can one work within a budget to complete a building project? These guiding questions will be investigated and answered within a hands-on...
Curated OER
What's Shaking? Three-Lesson Unit
Your young architects use the Internet to research tall structures or sky scrapers to help in the design of their scale drawings. This is instructional activity one of three in which learners design, build, and test model skyscrapers for...
Curated OER
Math: Skyscraper Comparison
Young scholars examine skyscrapers by conducting Internet research and by creating and interpreting graphs. After reading the book, "Skyscraper," they discuss reasons why the structures are built. Once they have researched the tallest...
Curated OER
Reaching for the Sky
Students consider features of skyscraper using descriptive words, reflect on notion of skyscraper as orientation point in a city, and explore New York Times Building in Manhattan by reading and discussing article, "Pride and Nostalgia...
Curated OER
Skyscrapers
Pupils examine photographs of skyscrapers. They work together to design their own building. They must include a list of all of the essential materials and how to deal with problems. They present their completed design to the class.
Curated OER
Strong as the Weakest Link
Students apply knowledge of stresses and forces by building model structures. In this force activity, students consider skyscrapers and bridges in the world around them and the stresses that these structures endure. They use their...
Dick Blick
ArtStraw Architecture
While architects and engineers don't often build with plastic straws and foam board, the same principles still apply. Challenging both the creativity and critical thinking of students, this engaging design project is perfect for art and...
Curated OER
Parallelism
Young scholars use writing to show their understanding of parallel writing structures. In this ESL grammar instructional activity, students view PowerPoints, listen to short lectures and audio presentations. Young scholars categorize...
Curated OER
Strong as the Weakest Link
Learners recognize that compression and tension forces are important considerations in building structures. They construct their own building structure using marshmellows and spaghetti to see which structure can hold the most weight.
Curated OER
Strong as the Weakest Link
Pupils discover the types of stress that materials undergo. They examine how bridges and skyscrapers are built to withhold the tension. They create their own structure out of marshmallows and spaghetti.
Curated OER
Tug-Push-Twist-O'War
Students explore through experimentation how choice of materials affects structures.
Teach Engineering
Stop the Stretching
Stretch your teaching repertoire with an experiment on the elongation (stretching) and failure (break) of several materials. The point of the experiment is to design a composite material for chair webbing.
Curated OER
Balsa Towers
Students build their own tower using concepts from previous lessons. They are given a set of materials to use and general guidelines. They share what they have created with their classmates.
Curated OER
Reach For The Sky
Learners consider alternative designs for a tall building and choose one of their designs to build. As a final step, they design and construct a model of a skyscraper.
Curated OER
Built To Last
Students face the challenges of building big, functional structures, like bridges, domes and skyscrapers. They turn their talents to satisfying clients who have hired them to design their new home.
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
Engineering: Simple Machines
Fourth graders participate in activities to examine how simple machines help build things. They identify the six types of simple machines. They discover how simple machines where use historically to build pyramids and how they are still...