For National Lab Day 2019, the Applied Fluid Mechanics Lab hosted groups of high school students from Deer Creek High School and Oklahoma Virtual Charter Academy. Students were introduced to bio-inspired engineering design, and had the opportunity to participate in hands-on activities involving scale modeling, insect flight, and crustacean swimming.
Dr. Santhanakrishnan discussing bio-inspired design with students from Deer Creek High School
Using toy sharks to demonstrate how viscosity affects swimming performance
Students making model Thrips wings to study insect flight
Flow visualization using florescent dye
Dr. S explaining the unique swimming strategy used by krill and shrimp
Students watching a demonstration of the “krillbot”
Dr. S. discussing bio-inspired engineering with students from the Oklahoma Virtual Charter Academy
Demonstration of how viscosity influences swimming ability — explaining why zooplankton must use different swimming strategies than larger marine organisms
Students making model Thrips wings to test on the insect flight platform
Students enjoying visiting research labs on National Lab Day
Students watching a demonstration of the “krillbot”
Students watching a demonstration of the lab’s helicopter model
Mitch demonstrating the helicopter model for visiting students