Iris: Build a Better Wall Demo: Why Buildings Fail

This is an excellent collection of background material, resource and video links, and lesson activities on earthquakes and methods for constructing buildings that will withstand an earthquake.

An exciting activity has scholars use cell parts to build bacteria through cooperation with other groups. Each group has some of the cell parts needed, but they must trade with other groups to be able to fulfill their function as a...

Always strive to go higher. Viewers of a video learn about the advantages of constructing higher city buildings. This format requires the consideration of building materials, costs, environmental impacts, and commutes.

This activity helps students learn how diagonal braces, shear walls, and rigid connections strengthen a structure to carry forces resulting from earthquake shaking. [5:54]

A video lecture that introduces a technique that can be used to make buildings earthquake-resistant. The instructor demonstrates and explains how to use simple materials to build a shear wall for a building. [9:15]

Why do some buildings fall in earthquakes? Animated video addresses the key points of frequency, period, and resonance. All buildings have a natural, period, or resonance, which is the number of seconds it takes for the building to...

Animation explores how 3 buildings engineered equally on different bedrock will react to an earthquake. [1:25]

See a model of how a building reacts to an earthquake. [2:44]

See how a building responds to seismic waves. [2:37]

Float like a butterfly, think like a bee! Build a huge hive, hexagonally! Find out the reason that hexagons are the most efficient storage shape for the honeybees' honeycombs. This neat little video would be a sweet addition to...