Earthquakes Uncovered in Year 4

Our intrepid Year 4 are continuing their learning into their fascinating geography topic, ‘How does the earth shake, rattle and roll?’ Having already created plasticine models of the Earth’s core, investigated different types of earthquake movements with Oreo biscuits, and enjoyed a visit from a volcanologist, pupils have now begun considering the reasons why people choose to live in earthquake zones and how they adapt their lives to allow them to do so.

They have looked at countries like Japan, which experiences seismic activity every 5 seconds, and examined and discussed the design of important buildings, such as the tallest building in the world (the Burj Khalifa, Dubai), with its triple-lobed footprint and the Tokyo Skytree, with its central concrete pillar and flexible wooden joints.

This week’s practical work was a challenging engineering task, prompting pupils to consider how to design earthquake-proof buildings.

Using marshmallows and spaghetti, they worked collaboratively to problem-solve and create an initial design, which they then tested by placing their structure on top of a wobble cushion and checking its resilience to the ‘wobble test.’

Through this session, pupils developed their understanding of engineering strong mathematical shapes, such as triangles. They experimented with possible solutions, which added strength, such as increasing base size and adding cross struts, putting their theoretical knowledge into practice as they designed, innovated and learnt from their mistakes. A huge well done to all of our Year 4 pupils for engaging so brilliantly in this activity.