Younger kids have questions too! The 2nd and 3rd graders in Science Class at Alder Grove Charter School were able to meet with Chris Emmons, from Humboldt Bay Fire, to ask questions and have a reminder about Earthquake Safety.
It’s pretty cool he got them all under the table, holding on!!!
Middle School Earth Science students make use of CEETEP materials in a lesson about Earthquakes.
Teacher Cassie Moulton was pretty happy with the super slinky!
Students were very interested in the Tusnami Zone Map:
The Spaghetti Magnitude Demo was of particular interest to a student who is blind… She was able to FEEL the demo, and that made all the difference!
Students also offered a chorus of OOooos and Ahhhhs when the foam blocks came out, as the ideas were easier to grasp:
Students in the Upper Elementary Classroom at Six Rivers Montessori School in Arcata welcomed Ami Brusca for a morning workshop. The day began with a lesson in local geology, plate tectonics and why our area is earthquake country.
The students were very interested in Earthquakes themselves, and were mesmerized by the magnitude/spaghetti demo!
After taking notes, and going over all the details, the students got a little shifty after over an hour of lecture! They were deeply interested!
We broke off into small group sessions which the students rotated through hands-on activities.
One rotation was making plate boundary globes:
Another Rotation used the Super Slinky to learn about S waves and P waves:
And last but not least, the slip fault demo with the Sandpaper Blocks was a big hit:
Students each left school that day with a copy of “Living on Shaky Ground”, generously donated by the Redwood Coast Tsunami Work group. The science lessons were infused with detailed information about Earthquake and Tsunami awareness and safety. The Posters and learning materials were temporarily left with the teacher to continue the study.
In this second round of Earthquake Simulations we measured the amount of movement resulting when the potential energy in the stretched rubber band caused the sandpaper block on the sandpaper ramp to suddenly slip with the release of kinetic energy – the equivalent in miniature to that of an earthquake.
In conjunction with continuing intermittent Earthquake & Tsunami Geology lessons (which includes demonstrations, experiments, videos, reading and writing) we read aloud on our digital presenter, this book, written by Humboldt County earthquake & tsunami expert Lori Dengler, which relates the story of a boat belonging to a school on Japan’s coast which was washed out to sea by the 2011 tsunami there, and then drifted for two years in currents across the whole Pacific Ocean before washing up on a beach near Crescent City.
Then we wrote our own accounts and impressions of this remarkable story…
Aware and Prepared 