Why The Towers Fell

Though I have never visited, the countless books, movies, tv shows and songs that talk about New York always resonated with me.  9/11 is one of those times in history where you can remember exactly where you were when you first heard the news. 

On September 11th, 2001, the world changed. I was sitting in a classroom at Université Laval in Quebec City in a language lab. My professor stopped my class and spoke in English for the first time.  He said there had been a tragedy and that the Twin Towers in New York City had been hit by two separate airplanes. At first it didn't seem real - how could this happen? How would not one but two planes hit these tall skyscrapers?

Today, over 15 years later the location has undergone remarkable changes as seen here.  Now that years have passed, scientists continue to look for clues and answers as to how and why the buildings collapsed and what, if anything, could have prevented it from happening. Our focus for this lesson will be on the structure itself and what engineers considered when designing the buildings. There is a lot of information about 9/11 with a variety of angles and points of view so for our purposes we will focus on the scientific aspects of structural failure.

We will watch an abbreviated version of a documentary about the Twin Towers called "Why The Towers Fell" discuss how the impact of the airplanes caused their eventual destruction. If this topic of interest for you, I have included a link to the full documentary that originally aired on PBS here and you can watch it at a later time. For now, these are some questions to think about . . .

1. Why do scientists, engineers and city planners think about what may or may not affect structures?  
2. How can people's lives be affected by the efficiency of a structure?

We will watch the short video, Nova - Why the Towers Fell,  then have some time for discussion.

Types of Bridges - Let's take a closer look!

What are the most common types of bridges? Today we will take a look at 5 different types and identify their strengths and weaknesses and what they are most commonly used for. Later this week we will be building these different types of bridges and looking at their similarities and differences. Before we begin, can we find all 5 types here in Winnipeg? Let's take a look!


 

What are the characteristics of these different bridges?

Forces That Act on Structures

We have spent time learning a lot about different structure types and now it is time to think about the forces that affect these structures.  There are two types of forces - Internal and External.  Today we will take a closer look at them.

First we will read for understanding by highlighting and taking notes from text.  Second, we will watch a Brain Pop video to extend our learner and to make more connections. Third, we will do a few experiments to demonstrate how these forces work.  Finally, we will enjoy some licorice after we use it to show our understanding!

Let's get started!

(If you do not have the article, here it is!) Forces at Work
Gravity Brain Pop

Forces at Work - Password Required

Want to check out some other cool structures? Check out these strange and unusual structures from around the world!

Yoga Time! Culturama 2018

Welcome!! I am very excited to have you here! I have found a new love of yoga and I am so excited to share it with you! Since the beginning of this calendar year, I have done some form of yoga EVERY SINGLE DAY! I woke up one morning with a really bad headache and thought I'd look for a yoga video to help me. Since then I have fallen in love with doing a daily "practice".

Let's start by asking a question - What is yoga?





Today we will be doing a combination of two types of yoga - hatha - which is basic poses and vinyasa, which is "flowing" from pose to pose.

Have you done yoga before? What are you hoping to get from today's session?

Today I will teach you some basic poses and terminology, then move to a flow.  Finally we will do a great routine you can do in the morning or anytime you like!


Here is a link to Adriene's website, Yoga with Adriene, where you can find even more videos to get you started (or help you continue) with your yoga journey!