Raising the Roof!
Topping off the Model
After students complete the texturing, details, and assembly of the walls of their model, there is a tendency to rush to finish when they reach the roof and electrical lighting phases of the project. Students should take pride in their work and plan to keep their model for years to come; patience and perseverance now will add to their pleasure in contemplating their model later.
Important questions to consider during roof construction include:
Important questions to consider during roof construction include:
- Do I want to be able to remove the roof later to show the interior of the model?
- Do I want to secure the roof to the walls using glue, wire, or tape, but wait until I install my electrical lighting circuit?
The Pitched-Roof Dilemma
The Roof Tree
Carpenters who work in construction call the network of the central ridge and supporting beams the "roof tree."
For traditional gabled and hipped roofs, students will want to have a roof support every four to six inches in order to help the roof material keep its shape and avoid sagging or hogging in the future.
For traditional gabled and hipped roofs, students will want to have a roof support every four to six inches in order to help the roof material keep its shape and avoid sagging or hogging in the future.
Students may recall that in earlier experiments in M3 Math, the newspaper house building challenge, or the previous year's engineering unit, triangles are more rigid and keep their form better than other polygons, such as squares. If you need a square plane to complete your roof, reinforcing the corners by adding triangular cross-pieces is an excellent strategy.
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Students may choose to finish their entire roof with craft sticks. Alternatively, they may use craft sticks as a frame over which to lay cardboard, foam, or fabric. Different materials may be cut and secured with tape or glue to create the appearance of tiles, shingles, or metal roofing.
Architectural styles such as Art Deco, Postmodern, and Contemporary, as well as traditional forms from other cultures and futuristic forms students may be experimenting with, make use of curved surfaces in place of flat planes. These students may find pipe cleaners or chenille stems useful for forming the roof line of their models. The fuzz-covered wires can be used as frames or used to create a shape the teacher can then cut out of rigid foam board to complete the roof.
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