Earthquake STEM Challenge: Creating Buildings and a Shake Table

This is an Earthquake STEM Challenge. I created an Instructable for building a simple shake table and instructions for an engineering design challenge. Read the Instructables for all the instructions for this challenge. Read below for modifications to this activity to make it more real-world by utilizing budgets and analyzing costs per square centimeter.Building Materials/Tools and Costs:
Scissors – $1,500 to rent
Ruler – $1,250 to rent
Masking Tape – $400/cm
Spaghetti – $2,500/piece
String – $70/cm
Mini Marshmallows – $200/piece
Paper – $12,000/8.5×11 sheet; $6,000/half sheet

Challenge: What is the largest earthquake-proof structure (by square feet centimeters) your group can build within budget?

Constraints: You are limited to a budget of $38,750. Your building will be considered “earthquake-proof” if it can retain its complete structure on the shake table and not fall over during a period of 10 seconds of shaking the table. For multiple floors, at least two cross beams (running parallel or in an “X” shape) of spaghetti need to be present in addition to four outer sides surrounding the floor. Each floor needs a height of at least 7 cm to count as a floor.

Interesting enough, I noticed student designs were less creative when I used this approach for the Earthquake STEM Challenge than the version I put on Instructables. What has been your experience with engineering design challenges that use budgets versus ones that don’t?

P.S If you are looking for more ideas for science experiments, check out my book Real Science Experiments: 40 Exciting STEAM Activities for Kids online at Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Indigo (for those of you in Canada), and even Target!