by Ronnie Clark, Pine Valley Academy
Keith Gemmell, San Diego State University

Through a Project Based Learning activity, math students will address the following driving question: "How can we apply the principles of geometry and architecture to build the tallest and strongest weight-bearing structure?"

Introduction

In today's ever increasing world population, finding creative places to live is becoming more and more prevalent. Due to metropolis areas having high concentrated populations, building large skyscrapers to accommodate building areas in a small geographical space is more common. In Taiwan, stands the Shanghai World Financial Center, the world's largest occupied structure, which reaches at total of 1,598 feet (487 meters).

As amazing as this height is, there are three other buildings currently being built throughout the world that will soon surpass this world astonishment (as seen in image below).

The tallest of these three new building is Burj Dubai, within the United Arab Emirates. It will reach into the sky by the height of 2,682 feet (818 meters) when completed in September of 2009.

With these few examples it is clear that today's architects and engineers are accomplishing amazing feats. Today, you will embark upon a journey of building a great structure as well. More simplistic than steel and concrete, your structure will be composed of balsa wood and glue. Yet, just as the tallest buildings in the world need to be built to withstand extreme elements, so will your structure; balancing weight and height.

By the end of this project you and your team members will get a taste of what designers go through in building sturdy structures.