At a Glance: Students investigate the stability of structures by building and testing geometric shapes constructed from straws and pipe cleaners.
Concepts: Students work with three-dimensional geometry and explore the forces that act on structures.
Details: In this activity, students use ordinary pipe cleaners and plastic drinking straws to construct a variety of solid geometric shapes – the triangle, tetrahedron, hexahedron, octahedron, dodecahedron, icosahedron, and more. Students identify the members and faces of each shape and become familiar with the spatial and mathematical properties of these shapes.
Students also investigate the forces that act on structures – tension, compression, torsion, and shear. They test the inherent stability of each structure by applying downward pressure on the shape. The surprising test results reveal that the simple triangle and those shapes that incorporate the triangle are the strongest. As a homework assignment, students are encouraged to look for the simple triangular shapes in buildings, houses, and bridges.
At a Glance: Students investigate the stability of structures by building and testing geometric shapes constructed from straws and pipe cleaners.
