Engineering the National Pastime
Posted on October 8th, 2017 by Mary Lord
Baseball traditions may not have changed much, but engineering has helped improve performance, safety, and equipment – including perfecting the swing. Baseball also offers a great context for teaching math and science, and eGFI has compiled some helpful sites.
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Tags: ballpark design, baseball engineering, bat, forces and motion, Newton's Laws, Physics, pitch, sports equipment, stadiums, STEM education, Web Resources
Ballparks have come a long way from the baseball diamond cut into an Iowa cornfield in the 1989 movie Field of Dreams. Engineers have found new ways to design ever-more spacious stadiums, with better views, smart systems that reduce energy costs, and even apps that let you order food from craft beer to peanuts delivered to your seat.
“Engineering for your Community” is the theme of the National Academy of Engineering’s 2018 EngineerGirl! Essay Contest. Girls and boys in grades 3 to 12 can win up to $500 for writing pleas to persuade local or national officials to improve such infrastructure such as roads, trash collection, and the 9-1-1 emergency response system.
Build a robotic hand, use cars to teach force and motion, and learn about the American Society for Engineering Education’s free resources for teachers. Join us for a day of hands-on sessions designed to help you put the “E” in your STEM classes at the National Science Teachers Association’s regional conferences in Milwaukee (November 9-11, 2017) and New Orleans (December 1, 2017). And see highlights from ASEE Engineering Day at NSTA’s Baltimore conference on Friday, October 6.
After Hurricane Harvey inundated Houston with historic rains, engineering researchers Texas A&M University offered a quick, inexpensive way to survey the damage. They deployed drones – lots of them – in the biggest squadron ever used in an official disaster response. 
Alice Zhai’s curiosity about Hurricane Sandy’s destructiveness led to an outstanding high school science fair project – and a collaboration with a NASA scientist that produced a journal paper outlining a new statistical model for better predicting the economic damage from big storms.
Hurricanes, earthquakes, and other destructive events offer timely “teachable moments” about the role of engineers in improving weather forecasts and reducing the toll from natural disasters. eGFI Teachers’s collection of activities, feature articles, and other resources can help you integrate engineering into your classes – and inspire the next generation of “crisis” engineers.
The clear skies above Hawaii’s Mauna Kea make the site ideal for a giant telescope. That’s assuming engineers can shield it from earthquakes, fierce winds, and extreme temperatures.
Turn an empty cereal box into a pinhole projector or choose another DIY project for safely viewing the solar eclipse on August 21, 2017. Don’t forget to look around, too, as your shadow sharpens, the horizon colors with sunset hues, and birds roost! 
