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Interactive Science | Earthquakes-Plotting Recent Activity
| In this 2-day activity your students will first set up a World and U.S. map and then plot earthquakes that happened as recently as minutes ago on it.
On the surface it appears that students are just putting dots on a map. But because most of the dots end up near heavy black lines, they’ll learn on their own that most earthquakes occur along tectonic boundaries. If they don’t yet understand why this is so, you’ll just have to do some explaining. That’s what makes this an ideal activity to do at the beginning of an earthquake chapter.
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Teacher Notes
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►A strong set of
Teacher Notes (shown left), including:
- 6 pages of details, discussion, and information. Illustrated with images to keep you clear.
- Divided into 3 easy-to-follow sections: Materials per student, Beforehand, and Procedure.
- 2 teacher/student dialogues, based on actual classroom
discussion, which gives you a truer feel for the lesson.
- This being a 2-day activity, each day is clearly labeled so it
won't get mixed up in your mind or read endlessly.
- 3 recommended links you need to get up-to-the-minute earthquake
data.
- 8 Accessories- things you can choose to include to
lengthen and deepen the activity.
►A one-page
Quick Notes document that outlines the lesson. Use this to see just what the essential elements are, or if you find the regular Teacher Notes too descriptive.
►AN 11-slide
PowerPoint (shown right) that compliments the student handout. On day 1 your students need it to
set their maps up and begin "dotting" recent earthquakes.
►3
student
handouts- a hand-drawn World map with tectonic boundaries,
longitude/latitude lines, a key in the lower-right corner, and the links in the lower-left corner (so
students can finish at home); a hand-drawn U.S. map with the same features as the World map
as well as homework questions; and another small handout that tells students in steps how to set up their maps.
You're also provided variations on the World and U.S. maps- with and
without boundary lines and longitude/latitude.
►15
pictures you can use to reinforce concepts.
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PowerPoint
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Great Questions
They’re rare hard to find, but they make all the difference in a lesson. We’re referring to great questions. One great question is powerful enough to carry an entire lesson- it gives you something to build around and up to. Or you can leave it with your students to chew on for a homework assignment that wraps on into tomorrow.
 Our lessons include some great questions, but you can come up with more of your own by going through the lesson in your mind beforehand.
And don’t forget the importance of good mental preparation before the lesson. Plan a series of leading questions that culminate in that one special question that you almost can’t wait to get to. Since great questions seldom pop up out of nowhere, you should invest time in the lesson before the lesson, as described in our Yellow Sheet. By doing this you’ll give yourself a chance to come up with some great questions of your own.
Really Good
What’s a good way to measure how effective a lesson is? There are many ways, but an easy one is to ask yourself if it has “last day of school” status. What that means is on the last day of school, will students still remember it? Our hope is that all of our lessons will be in that category as you use them. Sure, students may only remember the demonstration at first, but then other thoughts should trigger- the law associated or a term and its definition.
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