Earthquake Engineering: Learning With LEGOs
| EVENT: | Learning with LEGOs, organized by the UCI Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UCI Center for Educational Partnerships and UCI FOCUS! |
| DATE: | Saturday, April 17, 2004, 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. |
| LOCATION: | Structural Engineering Test Hall, Engineering Laboratory Facility, UC Irvine campus |
BACKGROUND: The Earthquake Engineering: Learning with LEGOs event involves more than 700 middle and high school students, vying to build LEGO structures able to withstand the simulated ground motion of a major earthquake. The students, drawn from Compton, Newport-Mesa and Santa Ana school districts, have spent the past month learning about structural engineering and architecture in order to create resilient and aesthetically pleasing structures. The buildings, ranging from a few inches to several feet high, will be tested on the engineering shake table, a large platform rigged to simulate the vertical, horizontal and rolling effects of varying-strength earthquakes
Learning with LEGOs, founded in 2000, is designed to increase students' knowledge of engineering and earthquakes. The outreach effort is organized by the UCI Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UCI Center for Educational Partnerships and UCI FOCUS!, a program funded by the National Science Foundation that provides disadvantaged students with increased exposure to university life, promotes education in math and science, and sponsors teacher training.
