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Puerto Rico is home to approximately four million U.S. citizens and has a long history of destructive earthquakes. Historical records show that major earthquakes have struck Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands in 1615, 1670, 1787, 1844, 1846, 1867, 1875, 1906, 1918, 1943 and 1946 with estimated moment magnitudes between 7.2 and 8.2. The 1867 and 1918 earthquakes were accompanied by destructive tsunamis. Despite the eminent risk of major earthquake and/or tsunami striking the island, an “earthquake culture” in the different communities of Puerto Rico is just awakening. Our group has developed an outreach activity not only to raise awareness on Puerto Rico earthquake hazard, but also to attract and retain students from underrepresented groups in engineering careers. The activity was designed for high school students since this is a critical stage where most students are undecided about what career path to follow. During the activity the students are exposed to a short, dynamic and entertaining outlook of earthquake engineering and the problems an engineer working in this area need to solve. An educational shaking table is brought into the classroom, so that the pre-college students are able to develop and practice their natural engineering skills by designing, building, and testing their own structures. This exercise also enables a realistic approach as the students are divided in groups (“companies”) where each member plays a special role that permit not only identifying the role of the earthquake engineer but also other specialties such as architecture and costs engineering. In the sessions carried out, the students have shown great interest and display creative designs with basic notions of engineering, architecture, assembly and economy. Of course, the climax of the activity occurs when the students see their building “dancing” on the shake table and about to collapse.
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