A Sticky Situation: Designing Walls

Download or read book A Sticky Situation: Designing Walls written by Engineering is Elementary and published by Museum of Science, Boston. This book was released on 2005 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wood, stone, metal, plastic . . . if you want to build something, materials matter! Different materials have different properties: they may be more useful for one purpose and less useful for another. This unit explores earth materials, including clay, sand, and soil, as they’re used in mortar to build a stone wall. The storybook Yi Min’s Great Wall sets the scene; Yi Min uses her knowledge of earth materials to design a rabbit-proof wall to protect the school vegetable garden. Drawing on their knowledge of the properties of earth materials, students will plan, build, test, and improve walls of their own.