This is a problem-based learning (PBL) group jigsaw activity. The scenario is:
Students are employees of a unit of the United Nations responsible for coordinating disaster relief after a major disaster (the 2004 Asian Earthquake and Tsunami) occurs. The agency needs to understand the situation in each country so that it can coordinate the work of various governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working in the affected area.

Students are divided into Expert Groups (related to academic specialties such as Economics, Medicine, Political Science, Earth Science, etc.) and spend several days researching their topics. Students are then reassigned to one of seven or eight Country Groups, based on the countries most affected by the disaster. Each country group needs someone representing each expert group. In the scenario, these groups correspond to task forces that must determine what the situation is in each country and try to assess the current need for international assistance.

Students research their country, using internet resources, especially the CIA World Factbook and ReliefWeb, the information coordination website of the United Nations. At a large-group roundtable discussion, each group presents what it has found about its assigned country. As a final product, each student writes an individual report summarizing findings and making recommendations for disaster assistance.

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Students are employees of a unit of the United Nations responsible for coordinating disaster relief after a major disaster (the 2004 Asian Earthquake and Tsunami) occurs. The agency needs to understand the situation in each country so that it can coordinate the work of various governments and NGO (nongovernmental organizations) working in the affected area.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

In this multi-part activity, students study seismograms from 3 different seismic stations recording the magnitude 9.0 Sumatra earthquake of December 26th, 2004. By comparing the arrival times of the P and S waves on each seismogram, students determine the distance from the epicenter to each station. Using that data, they can accurately map the location of the epicenter and the precise time of the earthquake. After locating the epicenter, students calculate the position of the tsunami generated by the quake at one hour intervals. From those determinations, predictions are made about how much time people had before the tsunami crashed onto their shores. Finally, students investigate some of the ways people can lessen the impact of the next great tsunami.

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This exercise uses the example of the March 28, 2014 M5.1 La Habra earthquake to teach about earthquake risk and resilience in southern California. Students will examine seismic waveforms recording during the earthquake, as well as read reports from scientific agencies and news outlets to answer basic questions regarding earthquake risk and resilience.

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In this two-part activity, students/participants first:
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Complete a Hazard Inventory for their city or area of interest in the event of a magnitude 7 or larger earthquake and tsunami.
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Identify what critical structures and infrastructure will be affected.
Then:
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Write a summary statement assessing strengths and vulnerabilities of essential services or infrastructure.
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Propose actions for mitigating vulnerabilities.
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Create an Action Plan to address identified needs.

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This activity introduces students to high precision GPS as it is used in geoscience research. Students build "gumdrop" GPS units and study data from three Alaska GPS stations from the Plate Boundary Observatory network. They learn how Alaska's south central region is "locked and loading" as the Pacific Plate pushes into North America and builds up energy that will be released in the future in other earthquakes such as the 1964 Alaska earthquake.

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In this video adapted from Alaska Sea Grant, discover why multiple tsunamis resulted from the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964.

This document includes two activities related to earthquake base isolation. Learners explore earthquake hazards and damage to buildings by constructing model buildings and subjecting the buildings to ground vibration (shaking similar to earthquake vibrations) on a small shake table. Base isolation a powerful tool for earthquake engineering. It is meant to enable a building to survive a potentially devastating seismic impact through a proper initial design or subsequent modifications. The buildings are constructed by two- or three-person learner teams.

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Building Oscillation Seismic Simulation, or BOSS, is an opportunity for learners to explore the phenomenon of resonance for different building heights while performing a scientific experiment that employs mathematical skills. They experience how structures behave dynamically during an earthquake.

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Earthquakes happen when forces in the Earth cause violent shaking of the ground. Earthquakes can be very destructive to buildings and other man-made structures. Design and build various types of buildings, then test your buildings for earthquake resistance using a shake table and a force sensor that measures how hard a force pushes or pulls your building.

This learning video uses a simple analog setup to explore why earthquakes are so unpredictable. The setup is simple enough that students should be able to assemble and operate it on their own with a teacher's supervision. The teaching approach used in this module is known as the 5E approach, which stands for Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration, and Evaluation. Over the course of this lesson, the basic mechanisms that give rise to the behavior of the simple analog system are explained, and further elaboration helps the students to apply their understanding of the analog system to complex fault systems that cause earthquakes

This article lists common misconceptions about weathering, erosion, volcanoes, and earthquakes. It provides formative assessment probes and information about teaching for conceptual change.

Communicate the Quake is an interactive role-play used to teach upper-level undergraduate students about earthquake hazards, emergency management, and risk communication through the management of an authentic earthquake event.

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Think science has all the answers? Think again. This course will use real, authentic data to explore and investigate modern controversies in Earth Sciences. Use tide gauge records to understand how countries around the world attempt to protect themselves from tsunami events. Process seismic data to predict earthquake recurrence in the New Madrid seismic zone, right here in the breadbasket of the US. Sort through the millions of years of the geologic timeline to shed some light on what actually did, and did not, kill the dinosaurs. Finally, use global atmospheric data to understand how misrepresentation of data can be used to paint a distorted view of past, present, and future climate.

During this demo, participants use springs and a map of the Pacific Northwest with GPS vectors to investigate the stresses and surface expression of subduction zones, specifically the Juan de Fuca plate diving beneath the North American plate.

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Research-grade Global Positioning Systems (GPS) allow students to deduce that Earth's crust is changing shape in measurable ways. From data gathered by EarthScope's Plate Boundary Observatory, students discover that the Pacific Northwest of the United States and coastal British Columbia -- the Cascadia region - are geologically active: tectonic plates move and collide; they shift and buckle; continental crust deforms; regions warp; rocks crumple, bend, and will break.

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A homework/classroom activity where students collect historical earthquake information and use it to forecast the probability of larger earthquakes.

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Trench logs of the San Andreas Fault at Pallett Creek, CA are the data base for a lab or homework assignment that teaches about relative dating, radiometric dating, fault recurrence intervals and the reasons for uncertainty in predicting geologic phenomena. Students are given a trench log that includes several fault strands and dated stratigraphic horizons. They estimate the times of faulting based on bracketing ages of faulted and unfaulted strata. They compile a table with the faulting events from the trench log and additional events recognized in nearby trenches, then calculate maximum, minimum and average earthquake recurrence intervals for the San Andreas Fault in this area. They conclude by making their own prediction for the timing of the next earthquake. While basically an exercise in determining relative ages of geologic horizons and events, this assignment includes radiometric dates, recurrence intervals, and an obvious societal significance that has been well received by students.
With minor modifications, this exercise has been used successfully with elementary school students through university undergraduate geology majors. Less experienced students can work in groups, with each group determining the age of a single fault strand; combining the results from different groups and calculating recurrence intervals can then be done as a class activity. University students in an introductory geology course for non-majors can add their data from the trench log to an existing table with other faulting events already provided. The exercise can be made more challenging for advanced students by using logs from several different trenches, requiring students to design the table themselves, and giving students the uncertainties for the radiometric dates rather than simple ages for the strata. Most students -- at all levels -- are initially frustrated by their inability to determine an exact date of faulting from the available data. They gain a new appreciation for the task of the geoscientist who attempts to relate geologic phenomena to the human, rather than geologic, time scale.

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This article highlights lesson plans and activities that help elementary students develop map skills as they learn earth science concepts.