TEACHABLE MOMENTS – USING EARTHQUAKE NOTICES TO TEACH ABOUT GEOLOGIC HAZARDS

Real-time seismic and geodetic data in the classroom can capture the attention and imagination of students. Events such as earthquakes are dynamic, each providing a new angle for presenting geologic hazard content. Today’s K-12 classroom teachers and college faculty have growing opportunities for incorporating short- and long-term activities into their daily instruction for monitoring earthquakes and analyzing seismic data, as well as studying present-day tectonic motions. The Education and Outreach groups of IRIS, the University of Portland, and UNAVCO are developing a set of ‘Teachable Moments’, Power Point and .pdf presentations which provide a short summary of major tectonic events that can be used by educators to incorporate discussions of earthquakes and volcanic events, and resulting hazards. The presentations, generated by seismologists, geodesists, and educators, are available within a few hours to one day after the earthquake. The presentations include a variety of content allowing educators to customize the information for their classes. Common elements include US Geological Survey earthquake and volcano information, GPS time series from the EarthScope Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO) network, plate tectonic and regional tectonic maps and summaries, computer animations, seismograms, photos, and other event-specific information. These timely classroom presentations serve to enhance Earth science education, by increasing the time devoted to discussing natural hazards and providing high quality information to build student knowledge about tectonic processes and their related risk.