Play BEAT THE QUAKE

What precautions should you do to protect people from harm and reduce damages to property in case an earthquake occurs? Test your knowledge on earthquake preparedness and safety by visiting http://www.dropcoverholdon.org/ and play "Beat the Quake." In this game, you are challenged to make your home a safe place during an earthquake. You click on each object shown in the room and you choose an option on how to secure it. But you must hurry, because the earthquake may happen any time. After the quake, you will see how the objects responded to your design. This is both fun and educational especially to kids. Are you ready to play "Beat the Quake"?

Toys for Creative Minds

If you want to develop children's creativity, patience and imagination, give them a Lego or MegaBloks. Lego or MegaBloks consist of colorful interlocking plastic bricks, beams, axles and minifigures which can be assembled and connected in many ways to contstruct various types of objects such as vehicles, buildings and even working robots. Anything constructed can then be taken apart again, and the pieces used to make other objects. Lego and MegaBloks pieces are compatible.

My two kids especially my son, Geof enjoy creating objects using Lego and MegaBloks bricks. Geof designed his own Lego twin tower almost similar to the Petronas twin towers with perfect symmetry in design and colors. He creates cars, airplanes and buildings. He usually watches Lego creations in You Tube and gets inspiration from these movies. When inspired, he will diligently and painstakingly assemble the structure from his imagination. My daughter, Julia (4 yrs old), also creates her own cars and structures.

Tales of Disasters: Earthquake!

Here is another film made by No Strings for programmes in South East Asia and funded by Trocaire. The movie is about Badu and the Little Girl who experienced an earthquake. It is a movie on earthquake preparedness and response. Watch this with your kids.

This video was accessed at http://cogssdpe.ning.com/.

Structural Engineering for Kids 4 - Building Up London Bridge

London Bridge is a nursery rhyme where various concepts in structural engineering may be introduced. Obviously, the concept of structural engineering failures is described in this song - London Bridge is falling down. Structural failure this time is described in relation to different types of construction materials. The behavior and strength of various structural engineering materials and members can be described while playing the song - Build it up with pins and needles…Build it up with wood and clay…Build it up with iron and steel.. Build it up with stone so strong. How the structural members fail depends on the structural properties of the materials – brittle materials like concrete break or crush, ductile materials like iron and steel bend or yield. So London Bridge failed in various ways - Pins and needles bend and break…Wood and clay will wash away…Iron and steel will bend and bow… Stone so strong will last so long. Bridge failures, however, depend on many factors as shown in the video below like the structural design of the piers including the detailing of reinforcement, the bridge deck supports, the soil and foundation...

This nursery ryhme may also be a good opportunity to introduce the concept of strengthening and retrofitting of existing structures. So when London Bridge fell, the ryhme continues - We must build it up again, Up again, Up again. We should not wait for another bridge disaster to occur. We should learn form the previous bridge disasters like those that happened to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940 or the Hanshin Expressway in 1995. We should act now to strengthen and retrofit existing bridges and structures. The last slide in the video clip shows the bridge pier retrofitted against earthquake effects.

Structural Engineering for Kids 3 - The 3 Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf - Lessons on Wind Loads

Remember the story of the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf? This is a story where kids will learn the importance of designing structures against external forces such as wind due to typhoons and hurricanes. The big bad wolf wants to eat the pigs. And to do that he must be able to destroy each pig’s house by blowing on the house. The big bad wolf represents external wind forces that a house must resist. So to protect themselves, the pigs have to build their own houses. Pig 1 built a house of hay. Pig 2 built a house of twigs, while Pig 3 built a house of stone. And you all know the story’s ending, the big bad wolf’s strong blowing power destroyed the houses of hay and twigs, but not the house of stone. Structural engineers must design structures against wind loads. Codes like the National Structural Code of the Philippines (NSCP) specifies wind zones with corresponding basic wind speeds in determining the design wind loads. For example, Metro Manila belongs to Zone II with a basic wind speed of 200 kph, while the Northeastern parts of Luzon and Visayas under Zone I have a speed of 250 kph. According to the Outdoor Advertiser's Association after the Typhoon Milenyo in 2006 struck Metro Manila, they designed their billboards for 120 kph (PDI Oct. 1, 2006) and this is less than 200 kph. The toppled billboards due to Typhoon Milenyo showed us what will happen to structures not designed, constructed and maintained properly against wind forces. Photo courtesy of Engr. Willy Lopez (DPWH): Fallen billboard due to Typhoon Milenyo 2007

Structural Engineering for Kids 2 - Shaping Up Humpty Dumpty

You may be wondering why Humpty Dumpty fell from the wall if he has legs and hands. Well this is because of his shape which is very unstable. When he sat on the wall, he is not anymore supported by his legs and a little push will make him roll and thus he fell from the wall. If Humpty Dumpty is an inverted triangle, he will be more unstable. He will stand on the tip of the triangle and he has to balance himself otherwise he'll fall. But a rectangular or upright triangle- shaped Humpty Dumpty will be difficult to be overturned even if he is not supported by his two legs since the bottom side is flat for both shapes and the center of mass is near the bottom.

Shapes play a major role in the behavior of structures. Observed that because of the stable upright triangular shape, the Pyramids of Egypt and the Eiffel Tower have remained structural wonders. In earthquake design of structures, rectangular and upright triangular shaped buildings and towers are more preferred because of their regular shape. To build tall skyscrapers like the Taipei 101, the floor area has to be reduced as it goes up. An inverted triangle is the worst type of configuration for a building because it will behave like an inverted pendulum where the inertia forces will be concentrated at the top and there is very little resistance to lateral movements. The overturning moment will be too large such that it can easily be toppled down. Irregularly shaped structures, of course, can still be built provided they are properly modelled, analyzed and designed.

Structural Engineering for Kids 1- Humpty Dumpty & Structural Failures

Remember the nursery rhymes and songs your parents have read and sung for you just to put you to sleep? You or your parents may have not realized that when you were babies, you were unconsciously introduced to basic concepts of Structural Engineering whenever these nursery songs are played.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

All the king’s horses and

All the king’s men

Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty

Together again

This nursery rhyme is a favorite of my two kids. It is a lesson on structural engineering failures and instability. The egg-shaped Humpty Dumpty is an example of an unstable structure. A little push will make it roll and fall. Similarly, buildings or bridges will be damaged or will collapse if they are not properly designed and built against expected forces. Proper design of foundations, detailed analysis of connections, and correct design of structural members are necessary ingredients against structural failures. Minor damages such as simple cracks may be acceptable but structures must not collapse, such that they are beyond repair endangering people's lives.

Inspired by the Humpty Dumpty music, I created a short video clip about the damaged buildings during the 1990 Luzon Earthquake. Humpty Dumpty here represents Luzon and its damaged structures. Perhaps, nursery rhymes and children songs may be a good way of introducing Disaster Awareness and Preparedness to kids.

The idea of this blog was inspired from Henry Petroski’s book, “To Engineer is Human.” Petroski argues that “the ideas of engineering are in our bones and part of our human nature and experience.” This is a good book specially for non-technical people who wants to understand concepts of engineering design.