A SECOND ROUND OF HANDS-ON EARTHQUAKE EDUCATION WORKSHOPS IN N.C

The North Carolina Geological Survey (NCGS) received our second opportunity to provide Earthquake Education workshops. This cooperative agreement was based on the success of a grant in 2014. The NCGS coordinated four one-day earthquake education workshops in 2018 and 2019. The grant, from the FEMA Earthquake Program (EMA-2017-CA-00017), was administered by the N.C. Division of Emergency Management. The NCGS provided coordination and expertise. The NCGS workshops were based on similar workshops developed by the Incorporated Research Institutes for Seismology (IRIS).

The NCGS workshops were led by five winners of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers Outstanding Earth Science Teacher (OEST) Award. The workshop agenda was built to be a cohesive set of activities that could literally be used in the classroom the next day and is correlated to the N.C. Essential Standards curriculum. The participants included both formal K-12 teachers and non-formal educators such as N.C. State Park Rangers. Each participant received a notebook of activities, education kit materials (publications, posters etc.), and were eligible for Professional Development credits and Environmental Education Certification hours. Workshop materials were uploaded to the NCGS geoscience education webpage.

The main tenet of these workshops was to have award winning teachers teaching the participants. The experience of these award-winning, veteran, Lead Teachers informed the entire planning process, keeping in mind the realities of the classroom and expectations put on teachers. These workshops were not a content workshop lead by an expert scientist presenting in-depth information for the teacher to then digest, develop and institute programming in their classroom. A seismologist was involved to fact check and provide expertise but did not dictate the content of the workshop. The Lead Teachers were able to discuss characteristics of demonstrating each activity and how to teach the information to various types of learners. In turn, the participants were able to ask the lead teachers about their experience in presenting the information and demonstrations.