What is the engineering principle that the children will learn?
The children will learn about structures regarding buckling and how to improve the integrity using cross bracing and such.

What is the activity?
The children will build towers using straws, paper clips, and tape that must might a certain height and width constraint. In addition, the structure must be able to support a load hanging from the top.

What age group is the activity designed for?
Children aged 10-12 will probably be most receptive to this activity.

What will the children do and how will they learn by doing your activity?
The children will simply construct a few prototypes of towers, determine which aspects allow stronger loads to be supported, and bring them all together for the final model.

What supplies will be needed? What needs to be manufactured? If appropriate, include a sketch of the activity.
Straws, paper clips, tape, and a weight. The weight could be water or sand in a bucket, but it needs to be variable so that the children will be able to see exactly how much their structure supported.

How does your activity meet the requirements given above?
This activity teaches children about structural integrity. This appeals to most children because they are able to make something with their hands and have a class competition. Since the sharpest object being used in the activity are perp clips, there is no reason why this should not be suitable for any classroom setting. This teaches children about the design process in general as well as structures. They will learn through trial and error and prototyping. Straws can be aquired easily at fast food restraints, and perhaps the teacher could arrange it so that children would bring in as many straws as they could to help ensure enough straws for the activity. Paper clips are extremely cheap and reusable. Once a class is done with their trusses, they can easily dismantle them and future classes can use the same paper clips. This activity could easily keep children occupied for a class period, and there is no reason this activity could not fit in a very small storage bin.