Kenneth Reid , Director, Engineering Education, ONU

The Tsunami Model Eliciting Activity:A free, hands-on, active, real-world curriculum to

introduce engineering in K-12

Kenneth Reid, Director, Engineering Education, ONUChristine Floyd, Eastwood Middle School, Indianapolis

Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs) Developed through Purdue University Engineering

Education program Six guiding principles:

The Model Construction Principle The Reality Principle The Self-Assessment Principle The Model Documentation principle The Share-ability / Reusability / Generalizability Principle The Effective Prototype Principle

https://engineering.purdue.edu/INSPIRE/Research/project_summaries.html

The Tsunami MEA Developed specifically for

middle school students Designed to be completed

over multiple class periods Designed as an

interdisciplinary project Pre-engineering* Science Math Social Studies*

Originally tied to IN state standards

http://www2.onu.edu/~k-reid/tsunami/index.html

Implementation

7th grade – PLTW Gateway to Technology 2006 Required course

6th grade 2007-2008 2-3 weeks dedicated to activity

9th grade 2012

Interdisciplinary nature: interviews “These told more about the people, and global

studies told more about like what already happened, what’s happening, yeah”

“They were sad about all the natural disasters, but then I thought of all the things engineers have to do to prepare for rebuilding and manufacturing and stuff, I thought it was pretty cool how they learn techniques and how they use materials… It kinda all came together. Like how the country was coming along, then the project kinda put it all into perspective” [emphasis added]

Creativity

Let’s get started - Video:

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/environment/environment-natural-disasters/tsunamis/tsunami-101/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2011/mar/14/japan-tsunami-amateur-footage-video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3AdFjklR50 (start @ 1:24) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRDpTEjumdo

Images: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/03/pictures/1203

09-japan-tsunami-earthquake-anniversary-fukushima/

Questions?Ken Reid, Director, Engineering Education

k-reid@onu.edu

Chris Floyd, Science Department Chair, Eastwood Middle School, Indianapolis, IN

christinecfloyd@gmail.com

Other references: https://

engineering.purdue.edu/ENE/Research/SGMM/Problems/MEAs_html Examples of MEAs

http://www.engineeringedu.com/contestcurr.html Tsunami MEA – 2009 Best Middle-School Curriculum