Building Experiment

by | May 31, 2012 | 3 yr old, 5 yr old, activities, science | 4 comments

A couple of weeks ago I came across Science Sparks. I’m sure I must have discovered this blog before, but for whatever reason I found it again and decided to try experimenting with the stability of structures the next time the boys got the Duplos or Legos out. We had a lot of fun building, experimenting and hypothesizing together!

First we built just a house the way Cutie Pie wanted to, with towers of bricks one on top of the other, once standing next to each other and connected at the top. The second time with just four towers and a flat piece at the top holding them in place (like on the left in the above pic). We then went on to build a house with the bricks more interlocking, creating solid walls (like on the right above).

While we were building we talked about what was needed to build something strong. Both boys agreed lots of bricks were needed, but Cutie Pie thought an important component was a solid top to hold everything together.

Then the boys got a few balls. We rolled the balls at Cutie Pie’s first structure and it quickly fell apart. I asked Cutie Pie what he thought could have been done to make it stronger. He thought building it like the second one and then wanted to roll the balls at that one. Of course, it was indeed much stronger. The boys took matters into their own hands to bring down the “strong” house.

It was interesting talking with Cutie Pie as he further explained his building theories, then tried to create a building he described and test it’s strength!

Related articles

Article Comments

4 Comments

  1. Emma @ScienceSparks

    DUPLO is brilliant isn't it? My kids play with it every day and like nothing more than building towers and testing their strength.

    Thank you so much for mentioning Science Sparks and joining in with Fun Sparks.

    xx

    Reply
  2. Darci the STEM mom

    Found you via science sparks! Love your post! Boys are so inquisitive and building (and destroying) comes so naturally to them. I like how you have gotten them used to talking about their ideas out loud. I try to do this too, just so I can hear a little bit about how he's thinking, not to mention working on those communication skills! Great to have found you.

    http://www.STEMmom.org

    Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Categories