One alternative is for the students to plot a week or month of seismicity and for the teacher to supplement these maps with overlays that illustrate a year or more of earthquake activity. Initially, teachers will need to go through the exercise of downloading the maps and testing the Internet access to earthquake data. Once the students are trained in retrieving earthquake information, the preparation time should be minimal. Recommended time is dependent on student learning level. Maps and data collection sheets.
Seismology is a vocabulary-rich field.
The Related Resources section includes a glossary of earthquake terms. This lesson motivates students to question the how, when, where, and why of earthquakes through the activity of plotting earthquake locations. Over the course of the year, a pattern of earthquake locations will emerge. The section below describes the preparation required before the activity begins. In addition to the specific preparation for this lesson in terms of materials and the like, this project may necessitate background classes for the students in basic Internet usage, map reading skills, and introduction to the concept of interpolation depending on the experience of the students.