On Friday, September 20, 2019, students from the Mary Lyon K-8 School visited Northeastern for a field trip on Natural Disasters and Hazards. 55 students attended the field trip which included fourth, fifth, and sixth graders.
The students began their day learning about what engineering is and the engineering design process (EDP). Additionally, they learned the difference between Natural Disasters and Natural Hazards. The students participated in group activities about disaster plans where they had to make a list of thing to do before, during, and after the hazard. They were responsible for also making an emergency kit specific to that hazard. Some examples of natural disasters include blizzards, fires, hurricanes, heatwaves, and earthquakes.
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- What is engineering?
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- Volunteers
The next activity students participated in was building a rapidly deployable levee. It was based on a real world East Boston Greenway Flood Wall to counter flooding. Groups of students had to design a levee that could be placed into the testing container in thirty seconds, and be removed again within 30 seconds. The amount of time it took for water to start flooding in and drown “people” was recorded, and the longest surviving team was considered the winning team (tie goes to the cheaper design).
Thank you to all the volunteers, students, and teachers for making this field trip possible!
