2009-2010 K-12 Outreach Program
PEER and the NEES@Berkeley Laboratory at UC Berkeley have teamed together to offer educational programs for K-12 students about earthquake engineering.
The program for the 2009-2010 school year consists of two components:
The first is a lecture and activity session at the classroom of an interested teacher. The lecture will be tailored to the grade level of the students and will be given by UC Berkeley Civil Engineering graduate students who have been hired to operate this program. This lecture will be a powerpoint presentation that includes videos plus interaction between the lecturer and the students in the form of questions and feedback about felt earthquake experiences of the students. The lecture will include:
- – basic information about earthquakes
- – explanation of why earthquakes happen
- – discussion about professions (like engineering) that address the effects of earthquakes on our communities and buildings
- – teaching key building systems and components that help buildings resist earthquake shaking safely
- – instructions and background on the hands on activity
As a follow up to the lecture, teachers will be given materials for a hands on activity. For this activity the students (in groups) will be given a kit that contains materials for the design and construction of their own small earthquake-resistant building models.
In the second session teachers and their classroom of students will be invited to attend the PEER Earthquake Simulator Laboratory and NEES@Berkeley Laboratory at UC Berkeley for a fieldtrip. There they will have a tour of the labs and get to test their building models from the hands on activity on a shaking table that simulates earthquake movements. There is transportation funding to facilitate these field trips. Please contact Heidi Faison, hfaison@berkeley.edu for more information.
To schedule this program for your students, please see the calendar below. Once you find two dates (one for the in classroom session and one for the fieldtrip) in close proximity to each other that work with your teaching class schedule, please email Heidi Faison, hfaison@berkeley.edu to register your dates.
Other important and useful information is in the following documents:
- – Directions to field trip (PDF file - 297 KB)
- – Photographic Consent Form (PDF file - 48 KB)
- – Student Evaluation Form - Elementary/Middle School (PDF file - 34 KB)
- – Student Evaluation Form - High School (PDF file - 42 KB)
- – Follow-up Activities, Worksheets and Project Ideas For Teachers