ASA+Engineering

ASA ENGINEERING This ASA is about using Scientific, Mathematical and Technological skills to solve problems. How to solve problems. Why are things designed the way they are? Standard concrete is made using 3 parts of sand to 1 part of cement. Cement 'glues' the sand together. A better 'glue' will make the concrete stronger, but there are other ways to make the concrete stronger. We will make small concrete bars and test their strength. We will test the strength of the bars scietifically, but will also 'test them to destruction' with a hammer! THINK Will adding a small amount of PVA or washing-up liquid make the concrete stronger or weaker? What about if we add some spaghetti or toilet tisue? TASK 1 First we make the moulds from mathematical nets. [] __**PROJECT 1:** **BUILDING** **TOWERS**__ [] (Video) __Part 1:__ Tall, light and strong. TASK: build a tower using only 50 sheets of A4 paper and paper glue. The aim is to get the highest structure that will hold a 1 kg mass. THINK. How to make paper a stronger building material. What shapes are stronger shapes? Which shapes give a more stable structure? __Part 2__ The stability of towers Why some designs are more likely to fall over than others. [] TASK: Sketch somes designs of towers with strange shapes. Consider what makes them stable. We will experiment and measure the position of the centre of mass and see what effect this has on stability. We will then build models of towers to see if we can increase their stability. THINK Are some shapes more stable than others? What does this depend on? How can we change the stability when we are designing towers: not just the shape...? These animations might help [] and [] __Part 3__ Counter-balancing How do we increase the stability of a tower by moving the centre of mass? We will build a 3D model of Banana Towers and try to make it more stable.
 * __PROJECT 2: MAKING AND TESTING CONCRETE__**
 * How huge towers like the Burj Kalifa in Dubai are designed?**
 * Are there any limits to how high we can build towers?**
 * Are there any shapes that we can not build?**