Building and Engineering

Children are born scientists—they love to explore and y activities that you can enjoy doing discover. There are man at home with your little scientist.

Questions • What materials are used to construct a house, a building or a bridge? • What tools or machines are used to construct a house, building or bridge?

tRY tHis At HoMe Make A House Out Of Paper You usually need strong materials,, you such can as build bricks, a house to build a strong house. However 3. Put a piece of paper on top as the roof and out of paper (which isn’t very strong) if you use strong it will hold in place. Now place a block on shapes. Strong shapes in building include round tubes and top of the roof to be the chimney. The roof triangles. Follow the directions below and build a house will collapse under the weight of the block. using paper and strong shapes. 4. You can make the roof stronger by folding it into strong triangle shapes. Fold the You Will Need paper in a concertina shape, back and • Five pieces of A4 paper forth like a fan. There will be many little triangle shapes in the paper now and this • Sticky tape will make it stronger. Put the new folded • A small toy roof onto the tubes and place the chimney • Wooden or Lego blocks block on top of the roof. It will now hold because the roof is made of strong triangle shapes. WHAt to Do e to build a house for. 5. Now your toys can live safely inside the Find a small toy that you would lik strong paper house. 1. Use four sheets of paper to make the walls. The paper won’t stand up by itself; it will keep falling down. DiD You KnoW? 2. To make the paper stronger and able to stand up by Triangles, tubes, arches and domes are itself fold them into strong round tubes. Fold the four • also strong shapes to use when building. pieces of paper (one at a time) in half (long ways) then roll up into a tube (about the size of a toilet roll). • The tallest building in is Sticky tape it together. Now use the four tubes as the at 195 metres tall. four corners of the house.

Open 9 am to 5 pm every day. Closed Christmas Day. Admission fees apply. King Edward Terrace, Canberra t 02 6270 2800 www..edu.au ReAD BooKs tRY tHese otHeR ACtiVities Have fun finding more books at your local library, • Tell (or read) the story of The Three Little book store or online. Pigs and investigate the strength of different • Building a House by Byron Barton building materials. Build houses for your children’s toys using straw (drinking straws), • A Year at a Construction Site by Nicholas Harris wood (paddle pop sticks) and bricks (blocks) • A Day in the Life of a Builder by Linda Hayward and investigate which house is stronger and discuss why. eXCuRsion • The top of an egg is a dome shape. Domes Go on An are curved like arches and are very strong. Go on a building and engineering excursion! eep the large half of the Here are some suggestions in the Canberra region. When you eat eggs k egg shells. Notice it is a dome shape. Put en edge and place at • Go for a walk in your local area and notice how tape around the brok many buildings have different shapes like circles, least four egg shell halves on the table. rectangles and squares. Notice how many buildings Test how strong they are by placing big books e triangles, tubes (columns), y books you can place have strong shapes lik on top. See how man arches and domes. on top before they break. You can even put a bunch of egg shell halves together to • Look for construction sites in your local area. make egg shell shoes that will hold your Look at the trucks moving dirt and cranes lifting child’s weight! things. Look at the foundations of the building and the walls being built. • Use blocks and build the tallest tower you can until it all falls down. • Visit the tallest building in Canberra, the Telstra Tower on Black Mountain (195 metres tall). Go up and have a look out of the observatory and see a wonderful sinG sonGs view of Canberra. Sing this building song with your child. Don’t forget the actions with your arms as walls, floor and roof. WeBsites inVestiGAte websites for children about building There’s a house There are many with a w There’s a house with a wall, all, and engineering. We suggest you start with: with a wall. • Play games and do building activities with There’s a house with a floor, with a floor, Bob the Builder at www.bobthebuilder.com with a floor. • vestigate In different styles of bridges at There’s a house with a roof, with a roof, www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/build-bridge-p4.html with a roof. Ooooh, it all falls down! There’s no house any more, any more. There’s no house any more! www.questacon.edu.au