Quakes and Shakes
Notre Dame's EERI Student Chapter (EERI@UND) has been widely recognized for its Quakes and Shakes outreach activity. This program challenges middle school students to design LEGO and K'NEX structures (respectively simulating masonry and steel) under the competing demands of constructability, appearance, economy and earthquake resistance. On later visit, the completed structures are judged and tested by EERI members using a portable shaking table to simulate realistic earthquake ground motions. DYNAMO staff have coordinated and participated in school visits since 2001. For more information on Quakes and Shakes see EERI@UND's website [link].
High School Bridge Activity
DYNAMO
staff helped to design a new outreach activity for Notre Dame's EERI
Student Chapter (EERI@UND) as a hands on engineering lab for local High
School Seniors. The exercise has student pairs model a simple arch bridge
using finite element software and then verify the predicted deflections
using hand calculations and physical experimentation. In this manner,
students can see how accurately mathematics and element modeling can
predict actual behavior. DYNAMO members have been involved with this
program since its inception in 2002. For more information on High
School Bridge Activity see EERI@UND's website [link].
Ms. Wizard Day/Expanding Your Horizons Program
These
programs are targeted at middle school girls in order to increase their
exposure and interest in careers in science and engineering through career
fairs and hands on laboratories over the course of a one day visit to
campus. EERI@UND and DYNAMO staff have been involved with the Ms. Wizard
Day program since 2000, adapting the Quakes and Shakes program into an
abbreviated hands on lab and participating in career fair programs. DYNAMO
personnel later branched out into the Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) program
in 2002, developing a hands-on laboratory on Suspension Bridges as one
example of a structural engineering marvel. Dr. Kijewski-Correa now serves
on the EYH advisory board. Photos of the Ms. Wizard Day activities are
available at EERI@UND's website [link],
while more information on EYH is available at www.nd.edu/~eyhnd
.
Pre-College Minority Engineering Program / Upward Bound
Notre Dame's
Merited Pre-College Minority Engineering Program (APMEP) exposes middle
school students from underrepresented groups to various types of engineering
from Electrical to Chemical through bi-monthly after school lectures
and labs and has had a significant impact on their career choices. The
program integrates distance learning technologies so that multiple sites
throughout South Bend, IN and Indianapolis, IN can participate in lectures
hosted out of Notre Dame. DYNAMO staff have been involved in the program
since 2000, teaching lectures and leading labs in Earthquake Engineering,
Skyscraper Design and Bridge Construction. More information on Notre
Dame's Pre-College Minority Engineering program is available at the
APMEP website [Link].
Upward Bound is a similar program targeting high school students to expose them early on to college through a multi-year summer program. DYNAMO staff have presented Skyscraper Design and Earthquake Engineering modules to Upward Bound Students. More information on the program is available at the UB website [Link]