Engineering Basics – Domes

This is one of a series of caches that I am putting together which will demonstrate some basic principals of Civil Engineering.

From Wikipedia:

Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction and maintenance of the physical and natural built environment, including works such as bridges, roads, canals, dams and buildings. It is traditionally broken into several sub-disciplines including municipal engineering, environmental engineering, geotechnical engineering, structural engineering, transportation engineering, water resources engineering, materials engineering, coastal engineering, surveying, and construction engineering.

When I was in college, one of my professors told me that Civil Engineering is the oldest profession….. after all…. SOMEONE had to design the street corners.  When I called my dad that night and told him that I was studying the oldest profession, he wasn’t all that happy about it – but he got over it.

This is a two part cache – you must complete both steps to get credit for completing this cache.

STEP ONE – FIND THE CACHE
The first step is a regular cache, actually, not a very difficult one at all.  The importance of the first step of this cache is that it will bring you to a location where you will observe a very good example of a Dome.   While there, besides signing the log, please take note of the shapes that make up the dome. The cache is micro - it is big enough for a log, but not big enough for a pencil, so please bring your own.

STEP TWO – DO THE ACTIVITY
The second step of this cache is an activity.  To get credit for this part of the cache, you must upload a photo of yourself or your group while doing this activity.  For the “Domes” cache, the activity is to build your own Geodesic Dome. 

Materials you will need:

1, Mini marshmallows (or gumdrops, but they are suprisingly expensive)
2, Toothpicks.

How To Construct A Dome
Step 1: Dome Base Use gumdrops or mini marshmallows to connect 5 toothpicks in a ring
Step 2: Dome Sides Use 2 toothpicks and 1 gumdrop (or marshmallow) to make a triangle on one side of the base. Repeat all the way around the base until you have 5 triangles. Use toothpicks to connect the gumdrops at the tops of the triangles. Now how many triangles do you have
Step 3: Dome Top Push 1 toothpick into each of the top gumdrops (or marshmallows). Use one last gumdrop to connect these toothpicks at the top
Try different shapes: - what happens if instead of using five connection points on the base, you use only four along with four connections on the second level? (See pictures below)
Permission for placing this cache was given by Mr. Mark Verhagen of the Milwaukee County Parks. If you would like to see more great activities that have to do with engineering principals, go to www.pbs.org/buildingbig .  To learn more about domes, go to that site, and clink on the “domes” link.  It will give you a lot of information.   Another great resource is www.asce.org/kids a>