About Quake Lab
Earthquakes happen when huge plates of rock slip, and the shaking travels through the ground into every building. In Quake Lab children are the engineers: for each building, from a little house to a skyscraper, they choose a frame, bracing, a foundation and a damper, keep within the budget, and run the shake table to see whether it stays standing.
Each part teaches a real idea. Cross braces and shear walls stop a frame from leaning, base isolators let the ground move under a calmer building, and a tuned mass damper is a giant weight that swings against the sway, like the one inside Taipei 101. Taller buildings sway more, so the skyscraper needs every trick at once. The best score goes to the safe design that costs the least.
Drop, Cover, Hold On teaches what to do when the ground shakes: get under a sturdy table instead of running, stay away from windows, stay in bed with a pillow over your head, find open space outdoors, head to high ground after a strong quake by the ocean, and expect aftershocks. The shake table is a simplified model of how engineers think.
Best for ages 8+
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