Welcome to Grade 3

Welcome to Grade 3

This year, our class at Our Lady of Charity School has been studying structures and mechanisms. We read stories about different structures and checked out some Internet sites.

We experimented with wind blowing through boxes designed in triangles like the Eiffel Tower. This showed us that open spaces let wind go through the spaces rather than push against a structure.

Using paper strips, we built I beams. This showed us that a column (beam) couldn't buckle because the material is spread out from the middle. When it does this, it makes a stronger column. These are used to keep a structure stable. When we worked with shapes, we discovered that the triangle is the strongest one. Some of us found that the cylinder was strong too.

During our study, we had the following expectations to learn from the curriculum documents: 1) what affects stability 2) what increases stability 3) experiment with ways to improve the strength of a structure's frame using geometrical patterns 4) use appropriate vocabulary to describe our investigations 5) design and make our own stable structures.

Come and see what we have been doing.