Spaghetti Tower Project Template and Instructions

The Good Guys Group:

Jose J Salazar, Stephanie A Chen, et al

CVHS Post Calculus 2015-2016

29 August 2015

Abstract:

The Spaghetti Tower Project is a yearly design project given to Post Calculus students at CVHS. The purpose of the project is to introduce students into technical report writing and get a glimpse in how typical research projects are conducted in academia; while there are many styles of reports published, students are expected to mimic guidelines given or observed within the template. Over the course of the project students are expect to build, learn from, improve, rebuild, and then explain their findings in how to best build a 40cm tall tower or larger that can hold 2.6kg. Successful students learn what geometric configurations, structural components, and building practices are paramount to build a requisite tower; furthermore, they then produce a detailed write up that is clear, cohesive, and extensive in their findings. Should an unsuccessful tower be built, successful students nonetheless detail their errors and failings in addition to ways in which they could improve their design or build; thus far Ms. Chen has been the only person to successfully design and build a tower that meets the requirements.

Extraneous: Students should note that the purpose of an abstract is to summarize a study and as such fluff should be avoided. The thesis should be succinctly introduced and the overall findings efficiently expounded; typically details such as numbers, calculations, and specifics are to be avoided unless critical to convey key matters of the study. Almost universally, abstracts are single paragraphs, typically no more than a couple hundred words—half a page to three quarter page max in this context. Generally speaking, a reader should be able to fully understand a research project by reading an abstract and then turn to the conclusions section to further understand the findings; only looking in the body to clarify methodology, repeat the experiment, or understand the study should they have little to no familiarity with the field of study. When writing the report, pronouns are to be avoided such as “I”, “me”, “we”, “us”, “my”, “our” and so forth; while different disciplines debate the use of active and passive voice within their publishing, the class will treat this topic as outsiders looking in and opt to use “in the study”, “during the study”, “it was found”, etc. instead of the more familiar pronouns.

Table of Contents:

Table of Contents

No table of contents entries found.

Introduction:

Spaghetti, an often overlooked building material, has seen little use in the construction industry due to its poorly understood structural capabilities; often seen as nothing more than a delicious pasta, spaghetti is quite remarkable in that it can sustain heavy axial loads despite its weak flexural strength. During the course of this study students learnto capitalize on the strengths of spaghetti while minimizing its weaknesses. Students learn not only how to best apply stresses, join pieces, and otherwise work with spaghetti as a building material but also acquire the skills to effectively communicate their findings in the form of a report; detailing not only what they did, what worked and what didn’t, but also how their design could have improved and failings within their final design. Because this project is a learning experience, students are all but expected to go through multiple iterations of their towers as they see how different configurations affect structural stability;

Materials and Methods:

Materials & Methods:

30 pieces of spaghetti

Glue

Tape

Glue cannot be used to coat the pieces of spaghetti

Tape may be used to help the build but may not be on the final product.

On a separate page, jot down your thoughts as you plan, design, and build your tower.

Guiding questions:

What points on your tower may be weakest and what will you do to fortify them?

What tests might you want to perform before you build to help you better design your tower?

Analysis:

Problems to complete:

Solve the following force diagrams:

Draw one side of your tower and determine the forces at each ‘joint’. Assume that the force from the textbook is evenly distributed on the top joints of your side. (Calculator allowed)

Rubric:

Explanation of thought process:
Does the tower meet the required load specifications?
Does it exceed it?
Completion and accuracy of follow up questions.

Write-up Framework

Title Page

Table of Contents

Abstract/Executive Summary

Introduction

Background

Literature

Conclusions:

References:

Appendix: