Today was our final day for our STEM Great Wall of China lesson.  The children had redesigned their mortar and wall design from our tests earlier in the week.  Today was our testing day.  Most groups had success and the group that didn't knew right away how they would change it if we were to build it again.  Here are the results.

This groups first wall fell apart on the level 3 hit.  Their redesign fell apart at level 4 at for 4 hits.  They changed the design of the wall.  They made their wall thicker and added more water. 

This groups first wall fell apart on level 4 with 4 hits.  That wall was one of the strongest and many people used their idea for a thick wall for strength.    This time their wall fell apart at level 4 with 8 strikes.  They were the strongest wall.  The changes they made were to add 1/2 Tablespoon water and in the design they put all the larger rocks on the bottom of the wall.  Congratulations!!!!!!

This groups first wall fell apart at level 1.  It was the weakest wall and they were the only group that had 2 scoops of sand in their mortar.  For their redesign they decided to go with 2 clay and 1 sand.  They also added 1/2 Tablespoon of water.  For the design they made the wall thicker.  This wall fell apart at level 4 with 5 hits.  Congratulations to this group for the most improvement in their wall design.

This groups first wall fell apart at level 4 with 4 strikes.  It was one of the strongest wall in the first design.  They decided to go with a mortar mixture of all clay for the redesign because they thought that with the sandwich test clay was the strongest so they felt this would make their wall even stronger.  When we tested their redesigned wall fell apart at level 4 with only 3 strikes.  So they figured out that all clay was not as strong as clay with some sand.  

This groups first wall fell apart at level 2.  For their redesign they added more water and made the wall thicker.  They made sure the rocks fit like a puzzle and they filled all the spaces with mortar.  This wall fell apart at level 4 with 5 strikes.  Wow what an improvement!