One challenging part of this lesson plan for you, as the facilitator, is deciding what set-up youth will use to test their bridges.  Explore the three options below.

Image credit: Pitsco Education EZ Shake Table

There are a variety of shake tables that you can purchase online, ranging from $25 to over $200 dollars. See here for a low price-point model, here for a middle price-point model, and here for an expensive model. The benefit of purchasing a shake table is less prep work for you and a reliable testing set up. The drawback is the expense and ordering time.

Image credit: EiE "Teacher Tip: Simulate an Earthquake with Easy-to-Make “Shake Table” Blog Post

Prefer to do-it-yourself? There are many different styles of DIY shake tables you can build. Or, you can have youth build the shake tables themselves.  A few places to look for DIY instructions are Design Squad or Engineering is Elementary.  The benefit of a DIY shake table is a reliable testing set up and the option of an extension activity for youth.  The drawback is additional prep time if you build the tables yourself.

If you can’t purchase or build a shake table, you can use a classroom surface such as a student desk.  In this case, you would need to manually shake the surface to simulate the earthquake.  A drawback here is that it will be challenging to use the same amount of force each time (keeping testing fair for all groups) and may be loud or damaging to classroom furniture.

Whichever testing set up you choose for the bridges, you’ll need to make sure that you tape the two ends of the bridge to two shake tables, with the bridge hanging free between them, as it would in real life.  This is a more challenging testing set-up than if the bridge sits on top of a single shake table.

As always, deciding on fair rules and constraints for an engineering design challenge with youth is an effective way to include youth in designing their learning experience.  Here is the link to the youth facing slideshow for this lesson plan. Make a copy of the presentation and practice moving the boxes around on slide 6!