Our second field trip of the semester was on Friday, October 11th. This time, Al-Hamra Academy from Shrewsbury came for their first field 
trip, with 48 middle school students. As usual, the day began with learning about the Engineering Design Process (EDP) and roleplaying the process (designing a more effective alarm clock: one that pulls you out of bed!). Next – students did our Paper Towers activity. First – students learned to work with the materials (2 pieces of paper or 10 index cards + 1ft of duct tape) and designed and built towers to be as tall as possible (without taping to the table). The two tallest towers were 28 and 31 inches tall.
The second time around (Improving in the EDP), the activity had a more relevant take. As Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton just devastated parts of the USA, we wanted students to build hurricane-proof towers. The provided materials were the same (but no limit on amounts). In addition, each tower was required to be 1 foot tall and had to survive the simulated hurricane in two 
ways: storm surge (marbles rolling into the tower – see picture) and high winds (shooting the towers with a nerf gun). The resulting towers (see image) all survived really well! Many groups designed flood barriers: flat or re-directing walls, some groups built their houses on stilts, others with channels for water to flow through. Students were told they weren’t allowed to tape to the ground – but many came up with the clever workaround to tape to a large sheet of paper at the bottom of their paper. 
After this – students did the Who Polluted the Charles River and Water Filters activity – same as we did during our first field. However, this time, Jamie and Amanda – both second year Northeastern volunteers, led the activity! Thanks to all volunteers this day: Alejandro, Jamie, Erika, Amanda, and Abby.
