🚀 go-pugleaf

>I teach general physics at the high school level, and have the
>opportunity to involve our students in a school-wide construction
>project (building a house). It sounds like an excellent idea, but I need
>some help. Can anyone suggest sources for me to read dealing with the
>practical application of physics to house building? Does anyone have
>suggestions/experience to share? My students would team with construction
>students (under the direction of an experienced contractor) to help with
>specific questions - perhaps calculating load bearing in roof design, or?
>The goal is to bridge the gap between academic and vocational students.
>Thank you.
>       Tom      troper@eis.calstate.edu


If you can find it, here's a great resource:
Architecture and Engineering: An Illustrated Teacher's Manual on Why Buildings
Stand Up, by Mario Salvadori and Michael Tempel.  (1983: New York
Acadameny of Sciences, 2 East 63rd St., NY, NY 10021)

This is a complete lab manual and instructors guide that says it could be used
from elementary on up (I think this may be a stretch.)  For the lab acitivities
i
t
uses materials like styrofoam, ice cream sticks, tinker toys, Erector sets,
straw
s,
paper, and pipe cleaners.  There are 70 chapers in 10 units.  Here are the
units:

The forces that act on structures
Equilibrium
Tension and compression
Beams and columns
Cables and membranes
Trusses
Bearing walls and frames
Gabled frames, arches, and domes
Folded plate roofs
Inflated membranes

I've had it for years but have never really used it.  It looks great.  (In
fact,
I think
I'm going to take a closer look again!)

Hank Deemer
Pequea Valley HS
Kinzers, PA
<HH_Deemer@Acad.FandM.edu>