On Friday, October 13th, we welcomed around twenty-five 5th grade students from the Chittick Elementary School to campus. First, they learnt all about natural disasters and emergency kits. Working in teams, the students were assigned different natural disasters and brainstormed what they wanted in their emergency kits for the home as well as what they thought the city of Boston should have in their disaster plan. There were a lot of great ideas flying around!
This group was focused on hurricanes – just look at that great teamwork!
Students working hard on their disaster plans and emergency kits! What do you have on hand for an emergency?
The students then got the chance to think more about flooding disasters and utilise the Engineering Design Process to create a very important piece of personal protective equipment: life jackets!
They were asked to imagine that they had to build this life jacket very quickly with random household items and we quickly discovered it could be quite a challenge indeed. With a little perseverance, every team built their prototype (a small model of the design) and tested it by trying to keep a can afloat. This was a lot of fun and the students were really able to get their creative juices flowing!
After lunch, the students were able to observe an oil spill demonstration! They were able to learn about man-made disasters and different strategies to clean them up. We definitely saw that some strategies worked a lot better than others!
Thank you to Chittick Elementary School for visiting us!
A close up of one of our teams ideas for an emergency kit and a disaster plan during a blizzard. They have a colouring book and two games on their list – great ways to combat boredom if the power goes out!
