On March 19, FIU’s College of Engineering and Computing hosted its annual Wall of Wind (WOW) Mitigation challenge. The challenge invites South Florida high school students to develop innovative building structures inspired by the WOW research team.
It was created as a community outreach project to include STEM education and hands-on experience for students who want to pursue the field in the future.
“We thought, ‘How can we take this research out into the South Florida schools and get them involved so they learn about what we do?’” said Erik Salna, FIU’s Associate Director of Education and Outreach & Meteorologist.
In the competition, students prepared a physical test, an oral presentation, and a written technical paper.
Throughout the process, students recognized the opportunity and what it meant for their future in STEM.
Julian Valdes, a sophomore at Florida Christian School, expressed, “Even if we don’t get first, second, third. We can grow in knowledge of this.”
Mario San Jose, a physics teacher at South Miami Senior High School, had an opportunity to experience what this event meant to their students.
“What I love is the fact that we can see learning happening. At the beginning, they had no idea. They were clueless,” expressed San Jose. “Then all of a sudden, they’re coming back with the answers, and they feel more confident.”
