The O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory hosted a hands-on design challenge for approximately 1000 Oregonian students this past week in the Tsunami Structure Challenge (TSC). The activity, led by education and outreach coordinator Alicia Lyman-Holt, was comprised of a presentation which set-up the “design” challenge, a design and build phase where groups of four students built structures out of available materials and concluded with a test phase where structures were subjected to tsunami conditions at the wave laboratory.
Following the testing phase, Lyman-Holt gave students a tour of the research facility, introducing students to lab equipment as well as teaching them about the importance of ongoing tsunami and wave research.
The TSC was designed around the engineering goals in the STEM standards for Oregon at the 8th-grade level, which encompassed the largest number of participants in the challenge.
For more information about the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory, or to schedule a tour, contact Alicia Lyman-Holt.
What a great experiment and a true test of the students’ ability to think on the fly!