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Timescale of Earth's Events Activity for Kids
Shake Table DIY
- Duration: 30 min
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: $0 to $5
Make a shake table to test different building designs!
Material List
- 2Textbooks
- 4Marbles
- 2Large rubber bands
- 30Sugar cubes
Instructions
- 1Use two large rubber bands to secure two textbooks together.
- 2Place four marbles in-between the two books.
- 3Make sure the marbles are close to the corners but will not fall out when shaking.
- 4On top of the books, build a sugar cube house that’s three cubes high and three cubes wide.
- 5Now push and pull on the top book to simulate an earthquake.
- 6Try building structures of different sizes and shapes to see which one is best.
How It Works
A shake table can help engineers build earthquake-proof buildings. Buildings that are tall will shake more than buildings that are close to the ground. With this in mind, engineers can use what they learned from using a shake table to change designs to keep buildings from falling down and hurting people during an earthquake.
Check out the Full Lesson on Timescale of Earth's Events!
In this lesson, we learn that:
- The Earth's surface is constantly changing.
- Sometimes it changes fast like a volcano erupting.
- Sometimes it changes slowly like erosion.
