THE ROLE OF SCIENCE TRADE BOOKS IN INFLUENCING K-12 STUDENTS SOLID EARTH CONCEPTS: THE EXAMPLE OF EARTHQUAKE MAGNITUDE AND INTENSITY

Individuals’ ideas about solid Earth concepts are a function of their personal experiences as well as the formal and informal science education. A central element of K-12 education is reading, for which age-appropriate science literature can contribute to both general literacy and science learning. Trade books, or non-textbook, theme-oriented, mass-marketed print materials, make science concepts available to students as supplements to formal education through free-choice reading.

This presentation shares the results of an investigation into how earthquake magnitude and intensity are presented in science trade books. A total of 76 books published since 1990, available in large library systems, were examined for representations of magnitude and intensity. A recursive analysis was conducted to determine the extent to which text was oriented towards the science of earthquakes or how people are impacted by earthquakes, by grade band. Preliminary results show an over-representation of magnitude over intensity as well as a spike in publication frequency in the year after high-magnitude/high-intensity events. There were also questions about the consistency and accuracy of the causes of earthquake activity. When discussing science, the books tended to highlight the role of prominent individuals in measuring earthquake magnitude, with secondary consideration to the development of their ideas or the current use of those ideas in earthquake projections or alerts.

Another purpose of the work is the creation of a template to guide the development of new instructional materials, using three elements: (1) continued accurate representation of earthquake measurement, with magnitude as science-facing and intensity as people-facing; (2) the placement of materials in Earth science learning progressions in the NRC A Framework for K-12 Science Education and the NAEP 2028 Science Assessment Framework; and (3) in pedagogical models based on students’ ideas of solid Earth concepts and misconceptions, student sensemaking on earthquakes as Earth phenomena. Internally, this template can support the development of earthquake outreach materials. Shared externally with trade book publishers, it is anticipated that students’ earliest explanations of earthquake phenomena will be formed by more accurate reading materials.