Design and Technologies
Building & Construction
Students tackle towers, bridges and catapults using the full engineering design cycle, designing, building, testing against measurable criteria and iterating to improve performance, plus a hands-on demonstration of why triangles resist twisting better than squares.
Year 5–6
90 min
up to 30 students
$490 + GST
What students will do
Students begin with a competitive cup tower challenge and earthquake test, then rebuild using reinforcing materials to investigate how structural support changes outcomes and identify which design decisions made towers stronger. A teacher demonstration using straw models of different shapes lets students gently pull, squeeze and twist a triangle and a square, discovering that the triangle resists distortion far better. Students test a flat bridge span against a model car's weight, then test single and double arch designs to see how much more weight an arch can hold, before designing, building and load-testing their own pop-stick and binder-clip bridge across a fixed span. The session closes with a catapult challenge: students build and compare two lever-based launchers, one pivoting on a dowel and one on a bottle cap, measure launch distance for each, analyse where each design fails and make iterative improvements.
Learning outcomes
- Apply a systematic engineering design process, design, build, test, evaluate, iterate, to a series of structural and mechanical challenges
- Explain, using straw models, why a triangle resists twisting and squashing better than a square
- Justify material and structural choices using evidence from testing, including earthquake resistance and bridge load capacity
- Design, build and load-test a bridge that spans a fixed gap, and explain the design choices made
- Measure catapult performance against defined criteria, identify structural failure points, and implement evidence-based design improvements
- Negotiate and apply criteria for success for each challenge, then judge the finished design against them
Curriculum links
- VC2TDE6C04Core
Explain how the characteristics and properties of materials, systems, components, tools and equipment affect the design of solutions and their use. View on VCAA ↗
- VC2TDE6D04Core
Negotiate criteria, including sustainability, for evaluating design ideas and solutions, and use these to judge their suitability. View on VCAA ↗
- VC2TDE6D02Core
Generate, iterate and communicate design ideas and decisions using appropriate technical terms and graphical representation techniques. View on VCAA ↗
- VC2TDE6D01Related
Investigate the sustainability of materials, systems, components, tools and equipment when designing solutions to meet needs or opportunities. View on VCAA ↗
- VC2S6H02Related
Scientific knowledge, skills and data can be used by individuals and communities to identify problems, consider responses and make decisions. View on VCAA ↗
Often booked alongside
Chemical Sciences
Christmas SciTech
Students grow a crystal Christmas tree, mould a bouncy snowball, unmask mystery liquids with a colour-change indicator, make instant snow, launch Santa's sleigh and build a snowball catapult to take home.
Physical Sciences
Electricity
Students build working circuits, classify conductors and insulators, compare series and parallel configurations, and investigate how different energy sources, including hand-powered generators, produce electricity.
Physical Sciences
Light
Students investigate reflection, refraction and diffraction using mirrors, lenses and diffraction gratings, with laser beam demonstrations bringing the physics of light into sharp, visible focus.
Bring Building & Construction to your school
Tell us your year levels and preferred dates. We'll confirm availability and bring everything with us.
Limited dates each term — one facilitator, one school per day.