Shake, Rattle and Roll in 6th Grade
The TCS 6th graders have been deeply immersed in an earthquake STEAM unit and have been considering, researching and answering these essential questions:
SCIENCE: Where, when, why and how do earthquakes happen? What happens when they occur?
TECHNOLOGY: What tools and innovations help us understand, measure and cope with earthquakes?
ENGINEERING: How can we make models to measure and explain earthquakes? How can we build structures that can withstand their forces?
ART: How have earthquakes been depicted in art? How are emotions affected by earthquakes? How can design elements factor into building earthquake-proof structures?
MATH: How can earthquake data be collected, organized, analyzed and represented using different types of charts and graphs?
On February 2nd, we were excited to be able to visit Centerbrook Architects & Planners in Centerbrook, CT. What an amazing opportunity to link our STEAM studies to real world applications and learn from experts in our community!
Peter Cornell, an architect with Centerbrook and husband of TCS science teacher and robotics coach Amy Cornell, gave us a very informative tour of the firm, which is housed in an old mill where drill bits were once manufactured.
The firm harnesses much of the energy it needs from solar panels on the roof, hydropower from the dam behind the old mill that turns turbines in the building and geothermal heat from the ground and nearby pond. This monitor tracks their energy production and consumption.
Models of structures made from interesting dimensional materials are displayed everywhere, including these 3D printed ones.
In the modelling shop, 3D printers, woodworking equipment and skilled craftsmen create small-scale models as well as full scale, original pieces of furniture like this chair that Mrs. Coyne found!
We learned that architects and engineers have to comply with very strict building codes in seismically-active parts of the world. The students noticed comparisons between the frequency data that they collected in their math classes and this map that Mr. Cornell showed us.
Ted Tolis, also an architect at Centerbrook and parent of two TCS alumni Ian '13 and Emmett '15, shared a virtual tour of the master plan for TCS, and the students were very curious. They were especially interested to hear from Aaron Emma, who helped design and navigate the model, that much of the technology used is similar to video game technology and that playing Xbox can help build virtual model making skills!
It's great to be able to dream big! These students have seen such dramatic changes to campus in the past few years that they could easily envision these new additions.
We debriefed the trip with some lively discussions and by writing down some reflections from the morning. The students pulled out some takeaways which were added to this group thank you "blueprint" for our hosts. Thank you for your time and insights Mr. Cornell, Mr. Tolis and everyone at Centerbrook! We left very inspired to design our own earthquake-resistant structures. Stay tuned!
Here's a link to Centerbrook's blog about our visit written by our host, Peter Cornell:
