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Construction: Buildings and Beams
In this unit students act as structural engineers. The students will design and construct
at least two laminated paper beams. They will explore forces that act on structures and
discover that the strength of a beam varies with height, shape, and thickness. Lastly, they
will test, evaluate, and revise their beams using feedback from testing to refine their
- Describe forces that act on structures.
- Explain how the size and shape of a beam will affect the ability to resist loads.
- Calculate the efficiency of a constructed beam.
- Design, construct, and test a variety of beams to determine which can support the most
units contain teacher background information, handouts,
transparency masters, and a student packet
Each unit is designed to integrate mathematics
and science with technology and take 8 to 10 days.
"This material is based upon work supported by the National
Science Foundation under Grant No. 0095922.""Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations
expressed in this material are those
of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views
of the National Science Foundation."