Quest: Tsunami-Resistant Houses, An Engineering Design Process /STEAM Project

Challenge your students to design and build a tsunami-resistant house along a shoreline! This project is the perfect addition to your plate tectonics unit. It incorporates elements of the engineering design process and reviews basic graphing skills for scatter plots.

Students will research tsunami resistant designs and then design and build their own tsunami-resistant building. Students will be mindful of building material cost and will evaluate the most resistant designs. This product will have students evaluate the relationship between house design cost and safety score after a simulated tsunami test.

This is a perfect way to engage your students with these learning targets and it highlights practical applications for plate tectonics concepts. I have included a suggested lesson plan, student quest packet, and suggestions for how to create your tsunami simulator.

Learning Target:

-I can identify the risks linked to plate boundaries.
-I can explain how plate boundaries can generate tsunamis.

-I can use the engineering design process to construct a tsunami-resistant house.

Essential Vocabulary:

Plate Tectonics, Plate Boundaries, Tsunami, Subduction

Copyright © 2019 Daniel Hellmund, Hellmund Science
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Hellmund Science offers a variety of gamified science labs, notes, projects and games with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Project-Based Learning in mind. Gamification allows for Positive Behavioral Intervention Support as well as differentiation. Using this format, students learn to work together and choose the path of their liking to master various learning targets. Your students will play to learn!