This project is part of a 3rd and 4th grade unit on natural disasters. Students were introduced to natural phenomena such as earthquakes, typhoons, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis and wildfires. This unit offered the chance to discuss how natural disasters affect the community, to promote empathy and awareness of current housing situations, to ask what steps are taken to prevent damage, and what jobs and careers are related to this topic.

By showing students relevant examples of civil engineering, architecture, and design, we wanted to inspire them to design, troubleshoot, and build a solid model of a building.

This guide provides a step-by-step description of how to create the shake table, on which students will place their structures. Building the structures can be done in groups of 4-6 students and can progress over at least 4 classes of 40 minutes each.