A Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On: Earthquake Activities for High School Students

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Scientific paper

Activities for high school students enrolled in an earth science or geology/astronomy class are presented to demonstrate the location, frequency, magnitude, and associated effects of earthquakes that occur during the academic year around the world. These multidisciplinary activities are the result of three years of development in the setting of a geology/astronomy course for 9-12 grade students taught in Texas high schools and were constructed within the framework of the National Science Standards. Hence, they satisfy requirements for many skills outlined in the Texas Essential Elements, National Science Standards, and Benchmarks in Project 2061. The first activity demonstrates the location and frequency of moderate to major earthquakes around the world using the latitude and longitude of earthquakes obtained by e-mail subscription over the World Wide Web during the course of the school year. The second activity uses real seimic wave data to locate the epicenter of an earthquake. The third activity dramatically demonstrates the concept of liquefaction that is associated with many earthquakes. Real-time earthquake data show very dramatically the dynamic nature of our earth and should be highly relevant to the student. Materials needed for these activities include world maps (political and geophysical), a computer with WWW access, and miscellaneous inexpensive supplies. Other multidisciplinary activities can extend this unit to cover related topics, such as, natural effects of earthquakes (tsunamis, landslides, etc.) and plotting volcanoes in a similar fashion (which can be triggered by seismic disturbances) on another map. At the conclusion of these activities, the student should: 1) be able to generally predict where earthquakes are most likely to occur, 2) have a strong appreciation of the dynamic nature of the Earth and the role of plate tectonics in earthquakes, 3) to able to locate an earthquake's epicenter using seismic wave data, 4) appreciate effects associated with earthquakes, such as, liquefaction, and 5) improve their critical thinking skills (observation, hypothesis, prediction, inductive and deductive reasoning).

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

A Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On: Earthquake Activities for High School Students does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with A Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On: Earthquake Activities for High School Students, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and A Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On: Earthquake Activities for High School Students will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-815123

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.