With funding from the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM), the EEI-IHRC partner with the Miami-Dade County and Broward County Public School Districts to facilitate the annual FIU Wall of Wind Mitigation Challenge. As the next generation of engineers to address natural hazards and extreme weather, this STEM education event features a competition between high school teams to develop innovative wind mitigation concepts and real-life human safety and property protection solutions. The mitigation concepts are tested by the FIU Wall of Wind Research Facility as part of the competition. The Wall of Wind is the largest and most powerful university research facility of its kind and can simulate a Category 5 hurricane. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has designated the Wall of Wind as one of the nation’s major “Experimental Facilities” under the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) program. The high school students are inspired to pursue STEM education and careers in wind engineering and hurricane mitigation. There is no other competition like it in the entire country, and it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity for the high school students – an experience they never forget.
FIU News Story: https://news.fiu.edu/2023/wall-of-wind-challenge-is-launching-pad-for-high-school-students
With funding from the National Science Foundation, the EEI-IHRC partners with the Miami-Dade County and Broward County Public School Districts and the San Antonio (TX) Independent School District to facilitate the annual Wind Engineering for STEM Teachers (WEST) Workshop for middle and high school STEM teachers. Themes related to hurricane wind engineering and mitigation are explored and teachers tour the FIU Wall of Wind. Teachers learn about meteorology, hurricane science, and topics in aerodynamics and fluid dynamics. Teachers also learn how to build and use a fully functional wind tunnel to use in their classroom with their students.
The IHRC and the Museum of Discovery and Science (MODS) in Fort Lauderdale, partner to facilitate the Eye of the Storm, a free-of-charge, annual community hurricane education event showcasing special interactive activities and demonstrations teaching hurricane science, mitigation, and preparedness. The hurricane content is presented in a family-friendly way featuring activities for parents and kids. This includes engaging and exciting live air cannon missile impact demonstrations on shutters and windows, live weather safety theater shows, and live explosive weather science demonstrations. The 2023 Participant Post Survey showed 80.2% of respondents increased their knowledge about wind engineering and mitigating hurricane damage and 81.4% will be taking steps to mitigate hurricane damage. Additional assessment was done with message boards, Weather Jeopardy, and Kahoot! Weather Quiz Questions before the live theater shows.
NSF-NHERI DesignSafe News Story: https://www.designsafe-ci.org/community/news/2022/july/nheri-florida-international-university-center-stage-eye-storm-event/
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