Earthquakes

Suggested Grades

4+

Objective

• Students will understand what is an earthquake.
• Students will know which area is an in high risk.
• Students will know what damage the earthquake will cause.
• Students will know the earthquake safety principles.
• Students will practice these strategies and familiarize with them.

Materials

• a computer with internet access

Method

• The teacher will show some life earthquake pictures to the students, and ask them to share their feelings about the earthquake.
• Why do we have an earthquake? What cause an earthquake? The teacher will use a power point to show a material from the web site,"A Child's View of Earthquake Facts and Feelings". Based on children's drawings explain what cause an earthquake.
  -Earthquake ABC
• Fact and fiction: Group students into three small groups, and provide each group a worksheet from the web site. Using this worksheet to let students practice and discuss their knowledge about the earthquake. After sharing the correct answers, the teacher will give some feedback to students and make sure they get a correct idea.
  -FEMA: Earthquakes Facts and Fiction
• How do we know the earthquake? Using the material from the web site presents the knowledge: we can't predict the earthquake. The teacher should explain the reason why the earthquake can't be predicted. Then, the teacher will group students and provide them how to get information from the internet. During this time, using the following questions to guide students to find some information that they might not know. Which area has the highest frequency of earthquake in the world? Which area has the lowest Frequency of earthquake in the world? Which state is in high risk in America?
  -FEMA for Kids: Earthquake Risk States
  -Virtual Times: Recent Earthquakes around the World
  -NEIC: QUD Earthquake Bulletin
• What damage do the earthquakes cause? What is the biggest earthquake in the history?
  -Discovery Online: Earthquakes
  -FEMA: History of Big Earthquakes
• Because the damage caused by the earthquakes is so huge, knowing some survival strategies is very important. Using three real earthquake situations asks students to find solutions. Group students into three groups, and use problem-solving strategy to ask them to brainstorm how to do some preparation before, during and after the earthquake. Students share their suggestions and the teacher show students the website to see the information from exports. Finally, the teacher will help students to organize some safety principles.
  -Astro News: Preparing for an Earthquake
  -FEMA: Earthquake Preparedness
• Role-playing: based on stories from newspapers' reports, students will practice their findings about the safety strategies.

Internet Resources

Since the websites presented here are mostly American based, here are a few earthquake sites that are Canadian based:

Canadian National Earthquakes Hazard Program

Earthquake Preparedness

Earthquakes in Canada?