Students in Mr. Mark Custers Advanced Earth Science class have been working hard the past two weeks to design and create a structure that is able to survive a simulated earthquake on a shake board. Here’s the catch, each building can be built using only 200 popsicle sticks, 200 toothpicks, 200 craft sticks, and a limited amount of glue. The structure must also be at least 45 centimeters tall and have three stories.

            “This is the third year that I’ve done this project with the class,” said Mr. Custer, “Each year we have done this it’s been a little different.” Mr. Custer remembers how big some of them were three years ago when he first began the project, “The buildings were much larger, I gave them bigger bases, which cause the buildings to be more off scale. This year, we used a 6-by 8-inch piece of Styrofoam, which made the base more to scale size of the building.”

Senior Jake Johnston said this was one of his favorite projects of the year, “I really like hands on activities so this was definitely something I enjoyed.” He also added, “This was a lot better than other projects I have where we have to write reports and do worksheets so this is definitely more fun.”

After the buildings were all built the students placed Velcro to the bottom of their structure and strapped it down to a board built on a custom “Shake, Rattle and Roll board.” The board is des

igned to simulate an earthquake, complete with springs to simulate the after effects. Some of the buildings survived the tests, while some did not.

Senior Kip Vantilburg spoke about his tower saying, “It was built like a rock, but it fell apart.” Senior B.J. Krantz joked about the buildings adding, “A man is only as strong-hearted as his building.”  Junior Andy Fults, whose building survived the test talked about the steps it took to build the structures, “We started off drawing out our plans on paper, and then we spent the next two weeks building them.” He added that he “followed his plans” and that his building “turned out well, and did what he expected.”

Of the many activities that students do in the honors class, Mr. Custer highlighted this one as one of the students favorites, “This is one of the ones that kids look forward to,” he also said “Students generally like more hands on activities so I try to do a lot of those.”

Though the whole project was enjoyable, Johnston said that shaking the buildings was one of the best parts, “We may have got a little carried away with the shaking,” he said, “we were to the point where sometimes we were picking the board up [and] shaking them so hard.” A majority of the buildings survived, while a few were able to stay standing after losing a few parts. A couple towers met their demise and were completely destroyed.

The Advanced Earth Science class is an honors class that is available to all sophomores through seniors who have successfully completed freshman Earth Science.