SAN DIEGO — This is an annual program where volunteers teach students from fourth and eighth grade about earthquake science and engineering.
On Monday morning, 180 middle school kids both from Oceanside and National City made it to UC San Diego.
Seismic Outreach is a student-run program that is sponsored by the Society of Civil and Structural Engineers (SCSE). The intention is to introduce STEM education and engineering to kids who come from underserved communities.
Volunteers help them get access to programs like these that typically aren’t available for many of them because of a lack of resources.
On Monday, kids got the opportunity to not only tour the campus, but they first tested out some of the equipment that UCSD STEM students use.
Before coming here, all of the kids' teachers had to build their own buildings.
On Monday, they came to test their structures. It’s sort of a competition to see who performs better during an earthquake.
They test it under a small shaken table. While the test is going on, kids are really excited to see if their building stays together or if it collapses.
The faculty advisor for the programs said field trips like these are extremely important for kids. They know that marginalized communities don't have access to STEM education and programs.
This program is offered quarterly and this one was for the fall quarter. There will be another program offered during the winter and spring quarters.
Any school that is interested can sign up by reaching out to UCSD.