If you teach fourth or sixth grade in San Diego, you might be interested in having your students participate in the University of California San Diego's Seismic Outreach program. This hands-on project follows the engineering design process used in the Next Generation Science Standards as students gain experience creating earthquake-resistant structures. Another great part of the program is the exposure your students get to engineering students at UCSD and campus life.
The project begins with a visit from UCSD engineering students, who give a presentation on earthquake-resistant building design. Students then work on teams to create specified building structures made out of K'NEX pieces and test them either by shaking them manually or placing them on a homemade shake table (seen in photo above). UCSD provided me with directions for how to build one using materials you can get at a hardware store.
When building and testing specified structures, each team is given a variable to test, such as where to place bracing or whether to make the first story taller or shorter. Teams present their findings to the class, take notes on their peers' presentations, and then use this information in the design of their final building. Following the engineering design process, students build their models, test them on the shake table, and refine their design.
The most exciting- or maybe nerve-racking- part of the program when students present their buildings to be tested on an electric mini shake table. This is done with a field trip to the UCSD campus or sometimes a second visit by UCSD students. My students look forward to the event but are also nervous about how their buildings will perform! Many buildings do break on the shake table, so I prepare my students by letting them know that it's the job of the UCSD students to try to break their buildings, and they are experts at doing this. Having buildings break is just part of the process, and when UCSD students have their own structures tested, they routinely break, too!
The Seismic Outreach program touches on NGSS standards beyond engineering. Students are introduced to waves by learning about the seismic waves that cause earthquakes. Earthquakes teach students about tectonic plate movement. Before starting the Seismic Outreach project, I lead students in doing activities related to the movement of tectonic plates and the location of fossil finds, hitting other NGSS standards.
If you are interested in learning more about the Seismic Outreach program at UCSD, follow this link:
If you would like to explore another engineering project for middle school students, see my blog post about Future City Competition:
For a low-prep team building activity, follow this link to a blogpost on Venn diagrams:
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Very cool Amy. Enjoy your summer!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Priscilla! :)
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