Seismometers - Instruments To Increase Undergraduates' Awareness of Geophysics as a Career Option

Using seismometers as a catalyst, the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) partnered with The IRIS Consortium, and the USGS to expose the 2002 CSM freshman engineering class to geophysics instrument design.   As part of the Engineering Practices Introductory Course Sequence (EPICS,) 350 CSM students worked on designing an inexpensive seismic system for use in educational environments.  Students were provided with design specifications developed by members of the IRIS Consortium, in the form of a request for proposals.  The design requirements included;

• a capability of recording surface waves from earthquakes anywhere on Earth of magnitude 6.5 and larger,
• a design execution appropriate for non-technical operators and for use in a classroom environment,
• a total consumer cost of less than $150 (exclusive of a PC).

Dr. Lahr and EPICS students explore earthquakes

Students were introduced to the field of observational seismology and instrument design by IRIS Education and Outreach Committee members John Lahr (U.S Geological Survey), and Tom Boyd (Colorado School of Mines.)  Drs. Lahr and Boyd also provided the design specifications, preliminary reviews and guidance for many of the groups, and were judges for the EPICS challenge.

To develop their proposals teams researched the project through standard resources, such as the World Wide Web, and the CSM library.  Due to the general unfamiliarity of the problem content, teams sought additional support from the Public Seismic Network mailing lists and archives, numerous CSM faculty and USGS staff.  Given this variety of input, it's not surprising that a wide array of design approaches were explored by the student teams.  Some groups decided to utilize traditional seismometer designs and explore how these could be constructed at reduced cost, either by a manufacturer, in kit form, or simply distributed as a set of instructions and a parts list. Others explored non-traditional designs that included levitated graphite systems, microchip accelerometers and even a hula-dancing doll.

From the 70 student groups, the CSM faculty and USGS volunteers from the earthquake Hazards Team selected 17 finalists for entry into the 2002 EPICS Challenge competition.   Judging for the competition was based on how well the entries met the design criteria, the quality of the execution of the design, and the quality of the presentation made by the design team.  Middle school students from West Jefferson Middle School participated in the judging as potential customers of the classroom seismographs, assessing the appeal and intuitiveness to classroom students.

Winners of the 2002 EPICS Seismometer Design Challenge

The top design team produced a working prototype of a diamagnetic seismometer. This horizontal component seismometer senses the position of a piece of graphite suspended in a magnetic field.  A design utilizing a compact horizontal component seismometer based on a clever folded-pendulum design was awarded second place.  There was a three-way tie for third place in the competition. 

These designs included:

• A horizontal component seismometer in a 2-liter soft drink bottle based on a simple inverted pendulum.
• A swinging gate horizontal component seismometer with unique hinging system that allows for variation in period by altering the hinge point.
• A horizontal component seismometer with a free period of 18 seconds, based on a counterbalanced pendulum.

A full description of the top designs can be found at: http://www.jclahr.com/science/psn/epics/index.html

Winning designs received cash awards. First place received $300, second $150, and each third place entry $50. In addition these prizes, CSM faculty will select one student to be supported by IRIS, in a summer intern position at the PASSCAL instrument center during summer 2003.  All finalists have been invited to continue refining their seismometer designs as part of the second semester of the EPICS project.

The IRIS Consortium, under the auspices of the IRIS Education and Outreach Committee, is interested in developing and supporting efforts like this for three reasons;

1. To organize and support efforts to place educational seismographs in K-12 schools and undergraduate institutions. One of the principal barriers to more widespread, school-based earthquake recording systems is the availability of an inexpensive, yet sensitive, long-period seismic sensor that can attach to a PC's serial port via an analog-to-digital converter. The least expensive commercially available system (excluding the PC) costs about $500, which precludes purchase by very many teachers or schools. If this cost could be reduced to $150 or less, it would be within the range of many more budgets and would also be a good candidate to become an instrument recommended for use by the NASA, NSF, EPA and US Dept. of State sponsored Globe program.
2. To support and encourage learning of the highest quality through real world investigations and inquiry. The CSM EPICS is a two-semester sequence of courses taken by freshman and sophomores that is designed to develop key engineering skills such as open-ended problem solving, analysis of complex systems, the ability to educate oneself, and the ability to communicate effectively. CSM faculty response to this yearês challenge has been extremely positive, with many noting a perceived increase of student teams reaching out to faculty in many departments to explore the concepts of geophysical instrument design. 

3. EPICS design teams at work

   To prepare undergraduate and graduate students for a variety of seismology related careers and roles in society. There are currently few, if any, graduate-level seismology programs that emphasize the development of seismic instrumentation. As the current cadre of instrument designers and producers ages, the IRIS program has a strong interest in fostering the development of a new generation of engineers interested in developing and producing seismic instrumentation.

While the development of a fully functional, inexpensive seismometer is highly desirable; this is not critical to the success of the program.  The faculty of CSM and the IRIS Consortium both view the program as a successful model based on the interest and effort demonstrated by students, the open-ended, problem solving instructional techniques used in classes, and the exposure of these students to geophysics as a possible career. 

Related story can be found at:

Golden Transcript
http://www.jclahr.com/science/psn/epics/transcript.pdf

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