Turkey is located in a region of earthquakes. Many earthquakes occur in our country. On October 30, 2020, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 occurred in Izmir. Our students wanted to do a study on this subject. First of all, they started by doing research on earthquakes. What is an earthquake? How does it occur? They then discussed what they could do to minimize damage to homes from the earthquake. Due to Covid-19, all interviews took place online.
Our students used the following instruction as an example for this study.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR EARTHQUAKE RESISTANT BUILDING DESIGN
Goal:
The strength and durability of our homes will ensure our survival in a possible earthquake. The design of earthquake-resistant structures is one of the important work areas of civil engineers. You are also expected to design and present an earthquake-resistant building model by thinking and working like an engineer.
Materials that can be used:
1 – Garbage skewer
2 – Pipette
3 – Color Abeslang (Language Stick)
4 – Cardboard
5 – Dough Adhesive
6 – Silicon Gun and Silicon
Application:
While designing your building, you are required to use all or some of the materials listed above. You can also use some light materials. Your building must have at least three floors. There are three important criteria in building construction: Strength, lightness and flexibility. Your building doesn’t need to look like a house. As can be seen in the sample picture, it can consist of column, beam, ceiling and floor. You have to build your building on a piece of cardboard.
Evaluation Criteria
1- The building you are going to design must be at least three floors.
2- The specified materials are given for lightness. The construction you make should be light. (Below 500 gr.)
3- The building you build, 500 gr. must be strong enough to carry the load.
4- 500 gr. When you shake it with your hand from the cardboard underneath while there is a load, it should not stretch and be damaged
This activity was completed on February 15, 2021. With this study, our students have developed many 21st century skills such as creative thinking, engineering design skills, real-life problem solving. At the end of the event, our students’ work was published on our school website.