Helping Hands              

They design evacuation routes as well as highways. Their skyscrapers withstand earthquakes. And when disaster strikes, engineers rush to the rescue. Specialized structural engineers, for example, stabilize rubble so victims can be freed. Others lead search teams like this one (above) helping Hurricane Katrina survivors. Our lesson, below, marking National Preparedness Month will jolt your disaster engineers into action. Shake a leg!  

Students in grades 3 - 12 explore how the development of seismographs has helped save lives worldwide by working in teams to design their own seismograph from everyday items, test its ability to record a simulated classroom earthquake, evaluate their results, and report to the class.

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RELATED LESSONS

Save Our City (Grades 3-5)

Build an Earthquake-proof Structure (Grades 6-12)

Tippy-Tap Hand Washer (Grades 10-12)

MORE LESSONS:

Grades K-5  |  Grades 6-8  |  Grades 9-12

Feature: Engineering Students to the Rescue

Earthquake-shattered Haiti is a world apart from America's grassy college campuses. Yet for a growing number of U.S. engineering undergraduates, the country serves as a living classroom where they can apply their knowledge and skills to help real people - half a million of whom still live under tarps or tents - recover from one of the worst natural disasters of modern times.

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RELATED FEATURES:

Engineers Respond to Disaster in Japan

Oregon State's Tsunami Shelter Test Tank 

Engineering Students Invent Emergency Medical Clinic

How will humans use science and technology to explore space, and what mysteries will we uncover? What scientific and technological tools must we create to explore the solar system and beyond? NASA's second international Humans in Space Art asks students ages 10 - 18 to answer those questions through art. The deadline for submitting musical, literary, visual, or video artwork is midnight U.S. Central Standard Time, October 21, 2012.

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eCYBERMISSION (eCM) is a free web-based STEM competition for students in grades 6-9. Teams, under the guidance of a Team Advisor, work to solve problems in their community and can compete for state, regional and national awards, with potential winnings of up to $8,000 (maturity value) in US Savings Bonds. Team advisors can be teachers, coaches, counselors or leaders in youth organizations, with interests in STEM and education.  

eCYBERMISSION, sponsored by the U.S. Army, is an excellent teaching tool to help all students learn the real-life applications of STEM and can be incorporated into classroom or home school curriculum or used as an extracurricular activity. The competition encourages self-discovery, giving students the opportunity to learn in a way that will benefit them the most. Teams must select a Mission Challenge, identify a real problem in their community, use scientific inquiry to propose a solution and submit a Mission Folder, the official write-up of their project. Mission Challenges include Alternative Sources of Energy, Environment, Food-Health-Fitness, Forces & Motion, National Security & Safety, Robotics, and Technology.  

eCYBERMISSION will hold a series of webinars that will give you the tools to integrate eCYBERMISSION into your classroom/curriculum, show you how eCYBERMISSION aligns with the National Science Education Standards, and detail the benefits of introducing eCYBERMISSION to your students. We will continue to update this list of webinars throughout the fall.  

Students that are registered by September 30 will receive a free STEM Research Kit! Team registration closes on December 14 and Mission Folders must be submitted by March 1, 2013.  

For additional information about the eCYBERMISSION competition, please contact Mission Control by e-mailing missioncontrol@ecybermission.com.