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This earthquake project has been designed for High School students at Branchville High School. Branchville High School is a rural community located in South Carolina. This project works with the SC Earth Physics Project, which has placed a digital seismograph in Branchville High School. The unit will take approximately two to four weeks to complete, but the students will continue to analyze the data over a longer period of time. The project will incorporate the SC Science Standards in Earth Science, specifically earthquakes. Students will work to create a product that will educate others on earthquake preparedness using all that they learn in this exercise.
Theresa Owens, Science Specialist, will assist Starr in her planning and implementation of the project.
During Earthquake awareness week (April 9-15) a speaker comes in and describes her experiences in an earthquake that has recently occurred. This leads into a discussion of earthquakes - personal experiences of the students, their friends, and relatives. The teacher brings up the devastating earthquake that occurred in Charleston in 1886, and the fact that there is a fault line just ten miles away from the school. The teacher then explains that the school is part of the SC Earth Physics Project and that there is a seismograph in their school. The teacher shares recent news articles with the class in which scientists are predicting that there will be another earthquake in SC sometime soon. Students will then be asked to develop a public awareness product that will educate the community so that if such an event were to occur the effects would be minimal. To assess prior knowledge and degree of technical proficiency, the teacher will administer a pretest. Student brainstorm ways in which they can educate the public on earthquake preparedness. Student ideas include brochures, websites, TV public service announcements. Students are grouped by their product interest, but no more than four students in a group. As a class, students brainstorm a list of people they would like to contact. This list includes survivors, other classes involved in SCEPP, builders, governmental officials, organizations such as FEMA, and scientists.
Student groups brainstorm lists of questions they have for each of the groups they will be in contact with. Students identify those that they will be communicating with, and places websites, etc) from which to gain other information. Students are trained in the use of the seismograph and the role they will play in helping the SCEPP scientists. Students are excited about their research and their role in earthquake research. During the day, students must take turns on the computers. Some students use email and chat software to communicate with survivors to gain an understanding of the emotional and materialistic toll of an earthquake, builders regarding building codes, earthquake researchers about data analysis, and other classes about the data they are collecting. Other students are at their desks looking at seismograph data, others are looking at maps showing plate boundaries. Some students are processing the information they have printed out from their web chats and email. Still other groups are discussing their progress (as they do regularly) with the teacher. One student tells the teacher that she has not heard from the FEMA representative. The teacher asks if she has visited their website. The student responded that she has collected information from there, but has some specific questions. The teacher asks the student to suggest other methods she could try in order to reach the representative. The student states that she could try to call her directly. Other obstacles are discussed and explored, and the students leave the session re-energized to continue with their research. The teacher is facilitating the work of the students, checking their progress, asking leading questions that will help to guide them. The teacher also works with groups to address their email summaries. Student groups regularly email the teacher with an update of their work. Theresa Owens frequently stops by to help facilitate the students' work; today she is working with the group editing their video presentation. Students are also journaling their activities, and every week the teacher looks them over, and makes comments where appropriate. For instance, one student has written that she is having trouble using the software the group has chosen for their webpage. The teacher suggests that the student go the project page that has links to tutorials pertinent to her software. The teacher also keeps in mind the name of another student who has a superior understanding of the software program in case additional help is necessary. Students with simialr products in mind also meet regularly to discuss obstacles and triumphs they are having during development.
At the end of the project ends, the students design their public awareness products and present them to the class. The groups that have developed brochures discuss how best to disseminate them. Another group posts their final version of their web site and asks FEMA to add a link to it. The group that developed a video is in talks with a local TV station regarding a public service presentation. Students will be assessed in a variety of ways, including the quality of their product, their understanding of how the issue relates to their lives, and how research is helping to increase the effectiveness of earthquake predictions. The Science Specialist observes the final presentations and assists the teacher with their assessment. Students will continue to analyze earthquake data and work with scientists to further their research.
Created for the FermilabLInC program sponsored by FermiNational Accelerator Laboratory EducationOffice and Friends of Fermilab, and funded by United States Department of Energy, Illinois State Board of Education, NorthCentral Regional Technology in Education Consortium which is operated by NorthCentral Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL), and the National Science Foundation.
Author(s): Theresa Owens (towens@scsu.edu)
SCSU High School Team, Orangeburg, SC
Created: March 9, 2001
URL:
http://www-ed.fnal.gov/lincon/w01/projects/earthquakes/to_scenario.html