A Kinesthetic Demonstration for Locating Earthquake Epicenters
John Keyantash
, California State University, Dominguez Hills
A kinesthetic activity for students to understand the technique for locating the epicenter of an earthquake. It is performed indoors and outdoors in three lessons.
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Context
Audience:
This activity is designed for middle-school students. However, I plan to use an accelerated variant of it for a college introductory earth science course for non-majors.
Skills and concepts that students must have mastered:
Algebra
Some background on earthquake wave forms.
Some background on earthquake wave forms.
How the activity is situated in the course:
It is intended to be used as either a stand-alone exercise, or as an activity supporting a unit in earth sciences.
National or State Education Standards addressed by this activity?:
California 6th grade Science Standards 1g, 7a
California Mathematics Science Standards for Number Sense (1.2), Algebra and Functions (1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 2.2, 2.3) and Mathematical Reasoning (2.3).
California Mathematics Science Standards for Number Sense (1.2), Algebra and Functions (1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 2.2, 2.3) and Mathematical Reasoning (2.3).
Goals
Content/concepts goals for this activity:
For students to understand how differing seismic wave arrival times can be incoporated into an methodology to decipher the origin of an earthquake.
Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity:
The higher order concepts involve mathematics. Students will appreciate how the arrival time lag can be used to algebraically deduce the distance away to the wave origin. They will also be exposed to the concept that while a circle represents an isolated set of possible solutions, intersecting circles form the set of simultaneous solutions.
Other skills goals for this activity:
Description of the activity/assignment
This activity has students bodily move as propagating seismic waves. They record their travel time along a string of measured length to compute average wave velocities. They then enact an earthquake, and use the time lag between wave arrival times and their computed speeds to determine the position of the epicenter.
Determining whether students have met the goals
If the student activities can replicate the position of the earthquake initiation, then they have successfully enacted the exercise. However, successful detective work is a secondary goal. The primary goals are to: 1) understand what is meant by compressional and sinusoidal waves, 2) to appreciate how their arrival time lag can be used to deduce the distance away to their origin, and 3) understand that if a circle forms a set of solutions, intersecting circles form the set of simultaneous solutions.
Download teaching materials and tips
- Activity Description/Assignment (PowerPoint 4.3MB Nov28 05)