Exploring Southwest Geology and Geophysics through the EarthScope Program

The workshop was very successful!

Workshop participants tested their creativity with some fun, hands-on, team activities. They built their own model seismometers to measure and record motion using regular classroom materials like cardboard, pencils, tape, rubber bands, sticky notes, and foam. Pictures will be at http://bit.ly/Cae6Y. The teachers learned how seismic waves move through Earth (watch the video at http://bit.ly/GWush), learned how to read GPS time series plots, and accessed live data online using UNAVCO’s Jules Verne Voyager Jr tool.

Steve Semken from Arizona State University gave a wonderful presentation on the geologic history of the region, beginning to tie geologic evolution to native ethno-geologic concepts. He plans to present more on that topic tomorrow. You can download his slides from both days of the workshop at http://bit.ly/12wGFJ.

Two guest speakers joined the workshop in the afternoon. Joelle Clark from Northern Arizona University and the National Park System spoke about various programs parks in the region offer to help teachers plan field trips, and teach about park ecosystems and regional culture in their classrooms. The parks offer “teaching trunks” that teachers can check out to use before, during, and after a visit to their local park with their students. Check out the program at http://www.nps.gov/learn/trunks.htm.

Diana Anderson from Northern Arizona University presented a “tour of research”, highlighting recent scientific field studies her team is involved with in Arizona and the surrounding region. She also spoke about numerous programs helping to build science teachers’ skills in STEM education, and internships that offer Native students opportunities to advance their education and careers in a range of scientific disciplines. Learn more at http://www.cefns.nau.edu/Academic/Geology/ and check out additional links I posted today on UNAVCO’s twitter page - http://twitter.com/UNAVCO.

After swapping stories over pizza, workshop leaders and many of the participants ended the evening with a trip to the Lowell Observatory (http://www.lowell.edu/). We were able to catch a great view of Jupiter and its 4 largest moons through a 114 year old telescope at an outstanding 200x magnification. We also spotted the moon and other noteworthy planets (including Pluto, Lowell defends) and stars in the dark skies above Flagstaff. Flagstaff claims to be the first International Dark Sky City in the world. Learn more at http://www.flagstaffdarkskies.org/idsc.htm.

Stay tuned for more as we wrap up the workshop tomorrow!

Exploring Southwest Geology and Geophysics through the EarthScope Program

Shelley Olds and Kate Tallerday of the UNAVCO Education and Outreach team are in Flagstaff, Arizona this weekend to help teach a workshop entitled Exploring Southwest Geology and Geophysics through the EarthScope Program. The workshop is funded by EarthScope and is a collaborative effort between educators at UNAVCO, IRIS, and Arizona State University.

Eighteen teachers from nine different schools and colleges throughout Arizona will come together to explore EarthScope learning activities as they relate to the geology and geophysics of the American Southwest. The teachers range from elementary educators to college level faculty.

Course instructors Shelley Olds (UNAVCO), Patrick McQuillan (IRIS), and Steve Semken (Arizona State University) anticipate that teachers will be able to describe why EarthScope is investigating the geophysics of the Southwest, how understanding the past can help us understand the present and future & how present day geologic phenomena can help us understand the past. The course will build upon teachers' existing knowledge and skills in order to improve their foundation in geophysics and be able to implement EarthScope activities in their classrooms.

Participants will really start moving and shaking as they learn to use "earthquake machines" and build their own seismograph models to use back in their classrooms.

Steve Semken plans to incorporate a place-based Earth science component into the workshop since all of the participants teach in the southwest region.

Stay tuned for more updates from the workshop!

UNAVCO Educational Materials: High School Educators

Are you a high-school educator who uses UNAVCO educational materials in your classroom?  Comment on this post about your experiences using our materials at the high-school level.  How have you modified the lessons for high-schoolers?  What other materials would you like us to work on for the high-school level?

UNAVCO Educational Materials: Undergraduate Educators

Are you an undergraduate educator who uses UNAVCO educational materials in your classroom?  Comment on this post about your experiences using our materials at the college level.  How have you modified the lessons for a large lecture class versus a smaller upper-level class?  What other materials would you like us to work on for the college level?

The Great Southern California ShakeOut Teachable Moment

The Great Southern California ShakeOut is an earthquake drill for a simulated magnitude 7.8 earthquake on the San Andreas fault on November 13, 2008.  UNAVCO has created a Teachable Moment, which is a set of powerpoint slides on ShakeOut for you to use in your classroom.  The slideshow can be downloaded at: www.unavco.org/EO. 

Note: the slideshow includes a video of the shaking.  There a two options for downloading the slideshow and the video.  1) You can download the powerpoint and the video separately, and then exit the slideshow to play the video on the second slide OR 2) you can download the powerpoint and video as a zip file, which you then have to unzip.  If you keep the video and powerpoint in the same folder, the movie should play within the powerpoint.

UNAVCO's Educational Materials

This blog is open to everyone using UNAVCO's educational materials, including our maptools like EarthScope Voyager Jr., our lesson plans, and the real-time GPS data in the classroom. Use this post to ask questions or post comments related to any of our educational materials.

New Podcast: Professor Anne Sheehan on the Rio Grande Rift, earthquake hazards, and more

Professor Anne Sheehan of the University of Colorado in Boulder talks about studying the Rio Grande Rift, the earthquake hazard in New Mexico and Colorado, how she got into geophysics, what it takes to be a geologist, and more.

This is an enhanced podcast that includes audio and pictures (.m4a), which can play in iTunes or Quicktime.

Download the podcast by clicking here.

Please contact Celia Schiffman at celias@unavco.org if you have an idea or topic for a future podcast.