EXCHANGE - EXPERIENTIAL EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING EDUCATION FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS THROUGH THE CALIFORNIA STATE SUMMER SCHOOL FOR MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE

摘要

The California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science (COSMOS) is a four-week, educational summer program for gifted and talented high school students. Science and engineering topics are presented via a variety of "clusters" located at four of the University of California campuses. The "Earthquakes in Action" cluster at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) has successfully employed experiential education methods in order to present structural engineering and geophysics topics. Lecture material on seismology and earthquake engineering has been integrated with activities, field trips, and group projects in order to enhance the students' understanding of the material. The goals of the cluster are to present these topics at a high level, meet national math and science program standards for high school students, and to encourage the students to pursue math- and science-based majors at public, in-state universities. The implementation of hands-on components to learning has shown to be effective in both helping to convey the advanced topics presented, while also achieving the greater goals of the program with regard to higher education. This paper discusses the structure of the "Earthquakes in Action" cluster within the contexts of experiential and problem-based learning theories, and will document the curriculum used such that its successes may be improved and replicated.