Reflection 4: Tower Assignment

Sara L.

                                                                             

Description of Design:

Building the tower was fun, though I will admit I often struggle with the design process.  Coming up with a plan to build something is a challenge for me.  My husband helped me get started because quite honestly otherwise I would have sat there frustrated for 10 minutes.  We discussed starting with using triangles.  Which was interesting because when I had my students build bridges I recall them discussing how triangles would be a better base than basic squares.  So, we decided to use triangles and to construct a three dimensional base as well (triangular pyramid).  Then in order to have the tower go up we taped the straws on the sides of the base with the bendy part taped down.  This way the tower had some give.  Then, as you can see in the pictures, we used triangles for support at each point where we connected straws.  On the top are 7 seven marbles in a small triangle.   They are pushed into the triangle and taped for extra support.

Tower:

27 1/2 inches tall

3 unused straw, 27 straws used

7 marbles used 

Calculations for Tower:

Unused straws X (straws used -5)^#marbles used =

3  X (27 ½ - 5) ^7 =

3 X (22.5)^7 =

3 X 2,919,292,602.54=

Final Score:  8,757,877,807.62

Failure Analysis:

The tower successfully held 7 marbles for the remainder of the class period; I didn’t want to break it.  After class I had every intention of testing the weight further, however the tower succumbed to a 4 year old and her towel.  The top of the tower was small so it would have been difficult to add more weight to the tower.  I suppose I could have added some additional marbles on top.  It sort of reminds me of the game “Jenga”.

Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenga

Improvements:

First, I think I would come into the task with a better attitude.  I don’t feel very confident in my design and building skills so I initially sat there and thought I would not have any pictures to post.  Then my husband agreed to help me get started.   I think collaboration was an important piece for me.  Without being able to talk things out with someone else would have made the task of building this tower much more difficult.  So, if I ever implement this lesson with students I would do the assignment in groups. 

Also, I did not really pay any attention to the formula.  If I were to do this again I would look at the information I was given first, then begin planning and building.  I think I was so worried about the time factor that I completely forgot to look at the information I was given, thus missing a big part of the design process.  Research needs to be completed first, then you can begin to design a plan and build. 

Finally, I try to listen in class but find myself distracted by my family.  I guess I thought we were supposed to use as many straws as possible.  I am glad I did not use them all since that would have resulted in a score of zero.  So, I think I would listen better next time around. 

This was a neat lesson.  Thanks for sharing!