Virtual Earthquake is a popular interactive exercise that is being widely accessed via the Internet by instructors and students of earth science. An alternative version, simply called Earthquake, is now being field-tested, and offers several features that are unavailable in Virtual Earthquake.

The new Earthquake is designed to be more inquiry-based and more closely mimic the scientific process. Various “tools” are used to control the placement of seismic stations, select and view seismograms, measure amplitudes and S-P lag times, measure distances on maps, plot and fit lines to data, read seismic wave travel time graphs, determine magnitudes with a Richter nomogram, and identify epicenter locations. Measurements are recorded in a Journal, which can be printed along with maps, seismograms, and background information. Users can save sessions at any time and return to them later. Upon successful completion of Earthquake, users must take an interactive assessment quiz before being issued a Certificate of Completion. Each question on the quiz is linked to one or more specific learning objectives. Scores are revealed to users and detailed results are stored on our server.

The new Earthquake assists instructors in the assessment of student learning. To use this feature, instructors register one or more of their classes in a password-protected account. After a class has completed the exercise, instructors can log on to Earthquake and easily generate detailed reports of learning outcomes related to specific learning objectives, or view quiz scores for entire classes or individual students.