Students must use latitudes and longitudes to find and plot a dot on the exact E.Q. location given to them. The second day most students can easily read their printed lists and plot the 20 current earthquakes onto a 11 x 17 paper world map or onto the map in the computer paint program. I assess their ability to plot earthquakes accurately on the world map according the longitude and latitude listed in the tables. All of my students have thoroughly enjoyed this unit and retained the knowledge and skills for months after we studied it. They love the time spent on the computers and are surprised at number of earthquakes occurring throughout the world at any given point in time.
Students get to interact and move around during the hands-on activities.
The kinesthetic learners enjoy moving around room to plot points. Overhead transparencies with point plotting exercises are good for the lower-level students and visual learners. The variety of learning experiences makes this an effective activity for all classes. This lesson has been conducted for multiple classes over the past two years. Any use of these materials for commercial gain is prohibited.