EXCHANGE - MULTI-DAY EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING WORKSHOP FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

A rigorous, two and a half day, curriculum developed for an earthquake engineering summer workshop is presented and its effectiveness is discussed with general observations from the faculty organizers, student mentors, students, and parents. Two workshops were organized in the Summer of 2010, enrolling 15 students, ages 11 to 15, in each workshop. The workshop presented basic topics in earthquake engineering and incorporated a relatively advanced analytical component linked to a series of shake-table experiments. The experiments demonstrated the influence of mass and stiffness on structural response while the analytical component introduced physics-based relationships engineers use to analyze seismic behavior. Overall, comments from the students and parents substantiate the effectiveness of an extended educational experience which will inform future activities on an NSF-funded project. Engaging students in a mix of enjoyable and rigorous engineering activities over the duration of several days is a novel approach not commonly used in the field of earthquake engineering, but should be disseminated and encouraged to increase excitement and promote diversity of the engineering workforce.