Instructor Notes — Week 9

Theme: Structure & Stability (SimLab Earthquake)
Focus Concept: Building towers that can withstand shaking
Mini-Project: Anti-Fall Tower Challenge

Learning Objectives

  • Build a simple tower structure in SimLab using beams and connectors.
  • Test the tower with earthquake simulations.
  • Strengthen the design using wider bases and bracing.

Session Flow (≈ 80 min)

Segment Time Focus
Recap & intro 10 Review motion tests; introduce towers & quakes
Tool demo 10 Build a basic tower; run a gentle quake
Guided build 25 Everyone builds a first-attempt tower
Independent refine 25 Bracing, widening base, re-testing
Share & tidy 10 Compare “before” and “after” towers

Part A — Demo: Wobbly vs Braced Tower

  • Build a quick, tall, thin tower with minimal support.
  • Run a low-level earthquake simulation and watch it fail.
  • Add bracing (diagonal members) and widen the base.
  • Run the same simulation and compare.

Link this to real-world buildings and bridges.

Part B — Guided Build: First Towers

  • Set a brief:
    • Minimum height (e.g. 3 or 4 “storeys”).
    • No grouping everything into one solid (we want realistic behaviour).
  • Let learners build a basic tower and run a first earthquake test.
  • Ask them to identify which parts failed first.

Part C — Independent Strengthening & Challenge

  • Learners improve their towers by:
    • Adding diagonal braces.
    • Widening the footprint.
    • Thickening critical parts.
  • If time allows, run a friendly challenge:
    • Increase the quake strength gradually.
    • See which towers survive longest, while recognising that “failure” shows where they can improve.

Vocabulary for This Week

  • Stability — how well something stays upright.
  • Bracing — diagonal supports that stop wobbling.
  • Base — the part of the structure that sits on the ground.
  • Earthquake — shaking of the ground that can damage buildings.

Instructor Tips

  • Be sensitive: earthquakes can be a scary or lived topic for some children.
  • Emphasise that this is a safe simulation to help engineers design safer real buildings.
  • Encourage changes one at a time, so pupils see what each addition does.

Assessment & Reflection

Look for:

  • Evidence of design changes that improve stability.
  • Pupils able to point to braces or base changes and explain their function.
  • Use of terms like “wider base”, “bracing”, “top-heavy”.

Prompt: “What did you change after the first test, and how did it help your tower?”

Common Misconceptions & Fixes

Misconception Clarification / Strategy
“Taller is always better” Discuss trade-off: taller is harder to stabilise.
Adding mass at the top improves strength Show that top-heavy towers topple more easily.
Braces anywhere work the same Compare random vs well-placed diagonal supports.

Differentiation

  • Beginners:
    • Build shorter towers with explicit guidance on where to add braces.
  • Confident learners:
    • Attempt taller towers; compare different bracing patterns.
    • Explain their design as if presenting to a client or engineer.
Subject Connection
Science Forces, vibrations, and real-world natural phenomena.
Geography Earthquakes and where they occur (if appropriate/time).
D&T Structural design and testing under constraints.

KS2 Curriculum Mapping

Strand Evidence in Session
Science — Working Scientifically Predicting, testing, observing, and improving designs.
D&T — Technical Knowledge Understanding how structures can be strengthened.
Computing — Modelling & Simulation Using digital simulations to explore “what if?”

Materials & Setup

  • Laptops / Chromebooks with internet and Tinkercad accounts.
  • Mouse per device.

Safety & Safeguarding

  • Handle earthquake topics with care and sensitivity.
  • Encourage supportive, non-competitive language when towers fail.