Making More Stuff: Making Stuff Safer

Our kits are currently being reviewed and updated by a team of collaborative, innovative and interdisciplinary educators who wish to enhance the educational opportunities for students. These dedicated teachers are members of CRISP Collaborative Science for All (CCSA) as well as local educators.

Click to see the SCSU CRISP Module Template used by CCSA for improving and updating the CRISP demos and kits. Each kit page offers a CRISP developed teacher module and CRISP aligned standards (both NGSS and CCSS)

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The world is a dangerous place. Monumental forces of nature—such as earthquakes and hurricanes—can destroy our homes and cities in a heartbeat. Today’s scientists and engineers are developing new
tools and gaining knowledge to protect us from natural disasters and keep us safer than ever before.
Adapted from Making More Stuff: Safer by NOVA via the Making More Stuff project

Subject(s):

Technology and Society, Mechanics, Structure-Property relationships

Objectives:

Students will discuss and think about some of the ways we protect ourselves from natural disasters and how we can make our structures safer.
Students will design and build various structures using gumdrops and toothpicks and test their buildings for structural integrity and redesign them as appropriate.

Materials in this kit:

The materials provided for this activity include:

• 11 toothpicks
• 11 gumdrops

Materials for the design challenge (for groups):

• pencil and paper
• 20 gumdrops
• 30 toothpicks
• 4” x 4” piece of firm cardboard

Not Included

• Small weights

Suggestions for the Teacher:

Things to talk about:

• What does “safe” mean to you?
• Describe some things from your daily life that are designed to help keep you safe.
• What are some examples of natural disasters?
• What are some of the ways that we protect ourselves from these natural disasters?
• How can we make stuff safer?

Safety:

Additional Resources:

Making More Stuff_Safer CRISP aligned standards
Making More Stuff_Safer teacher module

Making Stuff Safer presentation from NOVA
Making Stuff Safer Guide from NOVA
Making More Stuff Website
NOVA

Real World Applications:
The world is a dangerous place. Monumental forces of nature—such as earthquakes and hurricanes—can destroy our homes and cities in a heartbeat. Today’s scientists and engineers are developing new tools and gaining knowledge to protect us from natural disasters and keep us safer than ever before:

Building structures
Protection from natural disasters
Levees
Safety helmets
Car seats
Fire safety
Bridges
Docks and piers
Inside-the-home storm rooms that can stand up to tornadoes
.

STEM Careers:

Engineer
Architect
Structural Engineer
Civil Engineer
Mechanical Engineer
Physicist
Materials Scientist
Mechanical Engineering Technologists
Marine Engineers and Naval Architects
Industrial Engineer
Health and Safety Engineers
Architectural and Civil Drafters
Architectural and Engineering Managers

Standards:

Suggested Video(s):

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/making-more-stuff.html#making-stuff-safer