When anything is being built – a building, a bridge, a road, or a pier – the architects and engineers have to design it carefully so that it is safe and fulls the required purpose. This can be quite a challenge! 

As a final activity of the Structures unit, 3rd of ESO students made Spaguetti towers. It was a collaborative activity in which they had to construct a tower with limited supplies taking into consideration the basic principles of construction they learnt during the unit.

The building materials used were spaghetti and marshmallows. Although spaguetti and marshmallows don't look like strong building materials, elegant and sturdy structures can be built using them. The spaguetti provides the framework and support for the tower, the marshmallows are used to make connectors.

The shapes that are used to build strong structures are very important. Squares collapse easily under compression. However, triangles are more likely not to collapse under it. The best way to build a tall tower is to use both triangles and squares. A diagonal piece of spaguetti put across a square turns a square into two triangles and makes it more rigid.

Do you dare to try this at home?