Earthquake Engineering at BCS Summer Academy

Middle-schoolers from the Erwin, Enka, and North Buncombe Districts have been exploring solutions to real world problems each week at the STEAM-based summer learning program. Last week’s eighth grade project looked at the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010.

By Tim Reaves
BCS Communications Department

BCS Summer Academy students were shaking things up at Clyde A. Erwin Middle School last week.

Middle-schoolers from the Erwin, Enka, and North Buncombe Districts have been exploring solutions to real world problems each week at the STEAM-based* summer learning program. Last week’s eighth grade project looked at the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010.

While learning about plate tectonics, physical forces, Haitian culture, and disaster relief, eighth graders designed model schools to withstand simulated earthquake conditions on shake tables. On Thursday, design teams tested their models, watching intently as the projects rattled (and sometimes broke apart) under increasingly intense shaking.

“I’d rather be here than at home during the summer,” said Kaden, one of the students in BCS Summer Academy at Erwin Middle. “The teachers show that they care, and the classes are really interesting. We work on one thing for a week, and that gives you time to really think about it.”

“I like the hands-on stuff that we do,” added Sadie, another student. “I’m really hands-on, so that’s fun for me.”

It’s fun for teachers too, said Clyde A. Erwin High School science teacher Lily Dancy-Jones, part of the eighth grade team. She’s using BCS Summer Academy to get back into the “flow” of in-person learning and meet some of her future students.

“That’s what Summer Academy is all about,” she said. “It’s interdisciplinary, collaborative, and hands-on. It reengages students in a fun, cooperative learning space that will prepare them for next year.”

*STEAM stands for “Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics.”

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