Friday, January 16, 2015

Engineering For Teens, Styrofoam Block Igloos, Or After the Arch


While their snow fort melted, and collapsed outside...


...the older girls (ages 13 and 15) were hard at work inside, perfecting their igloo building skills.


They cut Styrofoam project blocks (non-affiliate link) into spiral circles, angled slightly inward...


...following the example of Tupak and Attic Utak, our new Inuit friends.


Then, after some trial and error, they settled on loosely stacking blocks on top of the base, into a sort of circular pyramid...


...with gravity holding them in place...


...against a central keystone, at the top...


Snow blocking tunnels were added for aesthetics, as being foam, and not snow, the blocks did not cement themselves together enough to allow for doors to be cut in the sides.


They might not have been strong, or stable, but they were standing - which was an accomplishment in and of itself.  I won't say it was an impossible project, just one that made building ice cube arches...


...seem elementary.

6 comments:

Ticia said...

I keep forgetting to have the kids build ice cube arches

All Things Beautiful said...

Now that is an igloo the boys might be wiling to do!

Anonymous said...

Great ideas! We will have try these!

Sue Elvis said...

Oh, I do like the photo of the ice cube arch. I'd like to make one of those and then take photos of it!

Unknown said...

I love this! Thank you for sharing.

MaryAnne said...

I need to try that ice arch experiment!