May 2, 2015
One of our ASAP Researchers, Dr. Lisa Spainhour recently participated in an outreach event at a local high school. The event was the third in a series of Super Science Saturdays, sponsored by Lincoln High School in Tallahassee, Florida. In an effort to encourage more students to take science classes in high school and consider careers in science, engineering, and technology, Lincoln invites students from their feeder middle schools to learn about a science field, and compete against one another in a related event.
Dr. Spainhour worked with Lincoln science teachers to teach the students about transportation engineering. Previous events were related to meteorology and forensics. Dr. Spainhour gave a presentation about bridge design and transportation safety, and then mentored the teams as they designed and built balsa bridges.
Garit Poire and Scott Kell, both civil engineering students at FAMU-FSU, attended the event and mentored the student design teams. Students from Swift Creek and Montford Middle Schools participated in the event, and a team from Swift Creek took home the trophy for building the bridge with the highest strength-to-weight ratio. The following pictures were taken at the event.