Discovering Design With a Skyscraper Challenge
In this lesson, children will learn that designing a skyscraper involves choosing the best materials and arranging them in the best way to keep the structure stable as it grows taller and taller.
Learning Goals:
This lesson will help children meet the following educational standards:
- Demonstrate curiosity about the world and begin to use the practices of science and engineering to answer questions and solve problems
- Explore concepts and information about the physical, earth and life sciences
- Understand important connections and concepts in science and engineering
Learning Targets:
After this lesson, children should be more proficient at:
- Developing beginning skills in the use of science and engineering practices such as observing, asking questions, solving problems, and drawing conclusions
- Identifying, describing and comparing the physical properties of objects
- Exploring the effect of force on objects in and outside of the early childhood environment
- Understanding rules to follow when investigating and exploring
- Using nonstandard and standard scientific tools for investigation
Step 1: Gather materials.
- Books about skyscrapers
- Photos of skyscrapers
- Open floor space for tower building
- Several different types of stackable building materials such as:
- Books
- Cardboard boxes
- Packing tubes
- Pillows
- Plastic or paper cups
- Wood or foam building blocks
Step 2: Introduce activity.
- Say: "Let's do some research." Share the skyscraper books and photos with the children.
- As you share the books and photos, say: "Think about what makes a building strong and tall. What kinds of materials are used to build tall buildings? What shapes or designs have you seen?"
- Explain: "When designing tall buildings, engineers use the engineering design process, which includes:
- Research: Find out what other people have already made.
- Gather requirements: List all of the things that a new building must have to function properly.
- Brainstorm and plan: Think of lots of different design ideas and then choose the best ones.
- Build and test: Build the first "skyscraper" and then test it.
- Redesign and retest: Keep changing, testing and improving the design until it meets all of the requirements as well as it possibly can.
Step 3: Engage children in lesson activities.
- Say: "Designing a skyscraper involves choosing the best materials and arranging them in the best way possible to keep the structure stable as it grows taller and taller."
- Challenge the children to become tower-building experts by stacking everyday objects to construct a tower as tall as they are.
- Examine all of the building materials that the children have collected. Think about how to build the tallest tower possible using only one kind of material.
- Predict what you think will happen. Ask: "Which material will be best for making a tall tower? What tower shape will be best for making it strong and tall? Why do you think so? How many blocks (or cups or cans) tall do you think the tower will get?"
- Try building different tower shapes with the same material. Ask: "Which shape gets tall the fastest? Which shape is the hardest to knock over?"
Step 4: Engineering vocabulary.
- Base: The part of a building that sits on the ground
- Proportion: The measurement or size of different parts of a building
- Skyscraper: A tall building with a steel or concrete skeleton frame, an elevator and different floors where people live or work
- Story: A floor in a building
Step 5: Extensions.
- Observe National Skyscraper Day on September 3, which celebrates the birthday and architectural achievements of Louis Henry Sullivan, known as the “father of the skyscraper."
Suggested Books
- Look at That Building: A First Book of Structures by Scot Ritchie
- Skyscraper by Jorey Hurley
- Up Goes the Skyscraper by Gail Gibbons
Music and Movement
Outdoor Connections
- Building outdoor forts or building with sticks is a great way to investigate and experience the science of engineering!
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