Building Big and Strong

"By the hair on your chinny-chin-chin, I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house in," says the big, bad wolf! Engineering hopefuls are challenged to design and construct a hurricane-proof building from simple office and craft...

Students build and test structures that can best withstand earthquakes. They create their structures from playdough, cornstarch, grape-nuts and popsicle sticks and place their structures on a "shake table."

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...

Besides serving as awe-inspiring monuments of human achievement, skyscrapers are built to perform a wide range of functions in urban communities. The second lesson in this series begins by exploring the history of the Empire State...

Do domed structures have advantages over their less-than-spherical counterparts? Junior architects explore the pros and cons of domes through a design challenge. Teams work together to plan, sketch, build, and test domes created from an...

Information about the basics of skyscrapers, with profiles of nine big-building wonders. Extras include a loads lab, which illustrates how and why skyscrapers stand up and keep standing up, and interviews with builders, engineers, and...

A collection of resources about domes that includes basic facts about domes, challenges faced by dome builders, famous domes from around the world, and a lab that helps you understand different kinds of materials used to construct domes....

Young scholars apply abstract concepts, such as stress, fulcrums, the law of gravity, and the strength of different geometric shapes. Groups of student contractors operate simulated architectural firms to create strong, economical bridges.

Bend it, but don't break it. Groups investigate the strength of different materials. Using a procedure in the seventh segment of a 22-part series on aviation, pupils determine how far a rod will bend. They determine the strength-to-mass...

Students investigate the world's tallest buildings. In this architecture lesson plan, students discover how humans change the physical environment. Students read about and view pictures of famous buildings in the world. Students make...