Adventures in Time and Place

Adventures in Time and Place
Grade 4: Regions
Infographic #9: A Steel Skyscraper
Page 234

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1. How are skyscrapers built so that they will not fall down? What materials are best for building safe skyscrapers? Find out by testing some virtual skyscrapers at Building Big: Skyscrapers.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/skyscraper/index.html

Click and explore Skyscraper Basics. Click each picture to make it bigger. Click the highlighted words to read their definitions.
Click Skyscrapers in the left menu. Then click and explore Home Insurance Building and John Hancock Center.
Click Labs at the top of the page. Then click Materials Lab. Click each material and follow the directions to learn more! Be sure to click and read Pros + Cons for each material.

Online Activity: Build a Safe Skyscraper!
Use the Materials Lab section of the Web site to complete the following table. Type your answers into the spaces provided.

Skyscraper Materials
	Advantages	Disadvantages
Wood
Brick
Steel

2. Take a virtual walk around Chicago to visit the city’s first skyscrapers. Go to Chicago Landmarks: Early Skyscrapers Tour.
http://www.ci.chi.il.us/Landmarks/Tours/Skyscrapers.html

Read the information. Look at the map to see where Chicago’s first skyscrapers are (or were) located.
Click and explore Marquette Building, Monadnock Block, and Delaware Building. Click some pictures to make them bigger.
Click and explore some other skyscrapers.

Offline Activity: It’s in the Mail
Choose one skyscraper. Pretend that you were living when it was built. Write a letter to a friend describing the inside and outside of this great new building. Explain what it looks like, what it is made of, and what is so special about it.