TeachersFirst's Earthquake Resources
Other TeachersFirst Special Topics Collections
Whether you teach about earthquakes as part of a unit on plate tectonics in an Earth Science class or need resources to explain a recent natural disaster, this collection of reviewed resources from TeachersFirst is selected to help teachers and students understand how earthquakes happen and learn about famous earthquakes in history. Also included are sites and tools well suited for projects about earthquakes.
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wickED - Science Interactives - Ministry of Education, Wellington, New Zealand
Grades
4 to 8
tag(s): plate tectonics (23), rock cycle (6), rocks (31), volcanoes (45)
In the Classroom
This site would be perfect to use when introducing a unit on rocks and the rock cycle, plate tectonics, or heat and pressure within the earth. Allow students to explore the interactives and compose questions that they would like to have answered. Challenge students to create a word cloud of terms from one of the interactives using a tool such as Wordle reviewed here. Continue to add to the Wordle throughout your unit.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Virtual Volcano - Discovery
Grades
4 to 11This site includes advertising.
tag(s): plate tectonics (23), volcanoes (45)
In the Classroom
Use this interesting site to learn about a volcano. Have students create models of the volcanoes they created virtually to show in the classroom. Assemble a variety of different resources to share with others about the various types of volcanoes, how often they rupture, and how people around the world cope.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Storybooks - Math/Science Nucleus
Grades
K to 6tag(s): animals (166), ecology (118), electricity (55), environment (230), human body (54), life cycles (10), light (31), plants (71), plate tectonics (23), rocks (31), space (133), stars (53), water cycle (21)
In the Classroom
Try incorporating some of these interactive stories in your existing science lessons, especially ones where you need to make a stronger connection between the content and life. Have older students read the story via a link on your website. With younger children, display stories on the interactive whiteboard and read through the story with them or have them partner read at a center. Talk about the stories relevance to the science that they are learning, and have students look for proof that the stories are scientifically accurate.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Bricks Activity - Math Forum
Grades
6 to 8tag(s): careers (78), critical thinking (55), earth (175), earthquakes (34), problem solving (123), puzzles (147)
In the Classroom
Introduce the activity on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) then allow students to work with partners to solve the brick problem. This activity would work well when studying earthquakes, careers (architects, civil engineers), as well as problem-solving.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Extreme Earth - Extreme Science
Grades
7 to 12tag(s): amazon (11), animals (166), antarctica (20), arctic (37), earth (175), earthquakes (34), geology (62), plate tectonics (23), sun (51), tsunamis (12), volcanoes (45), weather (150)
In the Classroom
Use this site as an alternative to a textbook in a one to one laptop science class. Add the link to the classroom wiki as an informational resource for your students. Or, develop questions about the reading and use as a guided reading activity to help enhance reading across the curriculum activities. Have cooperative learning groups explore one of the specific topics and create multimedia presentations. Have students create online posters on paper or do it together as a class using a tool such as Web Poster Wizard (reviewed here) or PicLits (reviewed here). Have students use Voicethread reviewed here to narrate a picture.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Extreme Science - Geology - Extreme Science
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): continents (29), earth (175), geology (62), plate tectonics (23)
In the Classroom
This site would be a valuable resource in a paperless science classroom. Information is reminiscent of textbook style writing with the convenience of informational hotlinks. Use as an alternative to the textbook. Have students use the information to research and create multimedia presentations. Have students create online posters on paper or do it together as a class using a tool such as Web Poster Wizard (reviewed here) or PicLits (reviewed here). Reading teachers will also find these passages useful for practice with finding main idea and summarizing informational texts. Share them on interactive whiteboard for students to highlight key words and compose a main idea sentence.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Tectonic Settings of Volcanic Activity - Prentice Hall, Pearson Education
Grades
6 to 10tag(s): geology (62), plate tectonics (23), volcanoes (45)
In the Classroom
Try having your students explore this simulation as part of a unit on volcanoes. Have the students work with a partner to practice or play with the simulation. Assign different groups different simulations. Then, have students take turns using your interactive whiteboard or projector to explain to the rest of the class how the different occurrences take place.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Science IQ - Science IQ. com
Grades
8 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): area (28), carbon (18), carbon footprint (8), chemicals (20), coal (11), earthquakes (34), energy (124), engineering (50), fossil fuels (9), fossils (37), glaciers (10), machines (26), matter (29), moon (52), natural resources (25), ozone (9), ph (3), planets (89), prime numbers (18), pythagorean theorem (9), questioning (16), space (133), square roots (11), stars (53), sun (51), volume (23)
In the Classroom
Try using this site's questions on a weekly or daily basis in science or math class to start discussions and provoke student thinking. Allow students to view the question on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Then brainstorm possible answers. Once enough thoughts have been seeded, share the real answers. Or, allow students to work at the answer as the lesson continues for a few days and reveal the correct answer as a finale to the lesson.This site could also be used as a learning station for the question of the day or the week.
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Science Master Learning Galleries - The KGM Group, Inc.
Grades
7 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): acid rain (6), carbon (18), climate (84), earth (175), earthquakes (34), fire (27), fossils (37), glaciers (10), hurricanes (27), images (115), natural disasters (10), natural resources (25), rocks (31), tsunamis (12), volcanoes (45), water cycle (21), wetlands (7)
In the Classroom
For a quick use, add images from this site to a PowerPoint. For a more in-depth use of the site, either choose several pictures/topics that would enhance your unit, or allow students to choose a topic they would like to investigate further. Have pairs or small groups of students brainstorm questions they have about the topic. Many of the questions they come up with will be answered when they click on the picture. For the questions that aren't answered on that page, have the student research the answer using the Internet as a resource.Have student groups make an online Stixy (reviewed here) of things they discover about their picture/topic, and later rearrange the items to "explain" their topic to classmates visually.
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Exploring Earth Visualizations - McDougal Littell
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): atmosphere (14), climate (84), earth (175), earthquakes (34), erosion (9), geology (62), oceans (106), plate tectonics (23), volcanoes (45), water (91), weather (150)
In the Classroom
Use "Observe a raindrop traveling through various paths of the water cycle" at the beginning of a unit on the water cycle. Give students the vocabulary terms and have them describe or narrate the path of one drop of water through the interactive. Students choose anywhere to start and after time will realize why it is a cycle. Use "Examine Earth from a new perspective" to view the Earth using a variety of contexts: earthquakes, sea surface temperatures, or seasonal changes in land to name a few. Use the Earthquakes visualization to see where the major earthquakes have occurred over time. Use this visualization to find the pattern in the earth. Use as the start of a unit in plate tectonics or later in the unit when discussing human population in the world as well. (Many are along coastlines where major populations are located.)Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Earth Science Teaching Lessons - Compiled by Christy Pratt
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): earthquakes (34), erosion (9), fossils (37), hurricanes (27), maps (165), rocks (31), tsunamis (12), volcanoes (45), water (91), weather (150)
In the Classroom
Use your interactive whiteboard or projector to view videos and images from the site with your class. Use lesson plans provided as additional resources within Earth Science units. Assign students different portions of the site to review and prepare multimedia projects to share with the class. Have cooperative learning groups create online books using a tool such as Bookemon, reviewed here. Or challenge students to narrate an image using a site such as Voicethread reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Volcanoes Online - Thinkquest
Grades
K to 12From Plate tectonics, the Earth's interior, Continental Drift, and other related topics, find a wealth of simple information to understand more of one of nature's most devastating events. Click on "Database" to identify aspects of the World's volcanoes. Answer quiz type questions in the game "Save the Village." Find lesson plans under "Teach." Use the review questions at the end to identify misunderstood information, try a simple and fun activity as a lab experiment.
tag(s): continents (29), plate tectonics (23), volcanoes (45)
In the Classroom
Create a webquest using the more advanced material on the site, with accompanying questions for students to answer. Consider using a jigsaw technique. Take one student from each group, with the same topic, to form a new group. This new group reviews information on a specific topic in order to become an expert in the topic. (Do this with the rest of the members of the original group as well.) In the end, these experts return to their original group and the expert information they have learned is all pieced together for further understanding by all of the group. Create conventional or multimedia displays to showcase information learned. Have students create an online, interactive poster known as a "glog," using GlogsterEDU, reviewed here to create a page to explain their findings. Or, use this information to develop a class wiki with information learned and serve as a template for a new wiki study guide created by the class.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Violent Hawaii - Public Broadcasting Service
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): disasters (28), geology (62), natural disasters (10), plate tectonics (23)
In the Classroom
When teaching about plate tectonics and associated natural disasters, check this site out with your students. Share parts of the video or use it in its entirety. Share the video (or clips) on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Use some or all of the websites from the lesson plan. The Shape It Up site is a great interactive - don't miss it! Have cooperative learning groups investigate different parts of this site and create multimedia presentations about their topic. How about a Word Cloud describing some keywords and phrases found in their research. Have students use a tool such as wordle reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Volcano Explorer - Discovery Kids
Grades
2 to 5tag(s): plate tectonics (23), volcanoes (45)
In the Classroom
The simple design of the site makes it perfect for students to independently gather basic information on volcanoes. Students will love building a volcano and making it erupt, and as students change the viscosity and gas levels they can practice making predictions in a science notebook. (I predict that when I increase the viscosity and gas, I will create a stratovolcano with a large eruption.) Share students' findings on a volcano wiki. Not sure what a wiki is? Check out the TeachersFirst's Wiki Walk-Through.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Shake, Rattle, and Slide - University of Illinois Extension
Grades
3 to 9tag(s): earth (175), earthquakes (34), glaciers (10), plate tectonics (23), volcanoes (45), weather (150)
In the Classroom
Use this site as an anticipatory set or "activator" to introduce a unit or lesson on geology and/or natural disasters on a projector or interactive whiteboard. When a disaster is in the news, use this site as the starting point for individual or group projects in response to their curiosity about the news event. Have ESL/ELL students use this to introduce other students to some possible disasters that occur in their parts of the world. Another option would be to divide students into cooperative learning groups to explore the site. Have them create presentations on different parts of the information found in the site and its activities. Use the information they find as a jumping off place for doing further research on areas that interest them.To show what they have learned from this site, challenge students to create an online graphic to share using Tabblo reviewed hereAdd your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Forces of Nature
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): earth (175), earthquakes (34), hurricanes (27), tornadoes (8), volcanoes (45)
In the Classroom
Use this site for students to create awareness sheets that may help the public in the event of a natural disaster. Students can also create public service announcements to help the public. Evaluate the school and community emergency preparedness plan using the information about these forces of nature. Use the information to create a sample emergency kit that all households should have in case of emergency. Make it a multimedia project by having students create online books using a tool such as Bookemon, reviewed here, to create an informative book about the weather phenomenon that they studied.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Stop Disasters - International Strategies for Disaster Reduction
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): disasters (28), earth (175), earthquakes (34), fire (27), floods (3), hurricanes (27), natural disasters (10), sun (51), tsunamis (12)
In the Classroom
Create groups of students to run scenarios. Student groups can analyze and determine best scenarios and courses of actions for prevention. After play, groups can analyze past disasters for real life perspectives as well as current conditions in the world for current disaster prevention measures. Use an interactive map to plot locations students find for each disaster. Have students use a mapping tool such as Mapskip (reviewed here) to create a map with audio stories and pictures included! Student groups can create a conventional or multimedia presentation on the different types of disasters and possible locations around the world.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Science for Middle School Kids - Kidipede
Grades
5 to 10tag(s): atoms (29), diseases (35), earth (175), earthquakes (34), electricity (55), medicine (28), rocks (31), weather (150)
In the Classroom
Use portions of this site as an anticipatory set in your science or math class. The information is simple to understand and would be useful for students struggling with a topic. Use the site for research about specific topics. Have teams of students explore each of the "sub-topics" within the main topic and then create an interactive presentation (Powerpoint, video, or wiki) to share the information with their class. Why not list this link on your class website, so students can access the page both in and out of the classroom.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Earthquake - Virtual courseware for Earth and Environmental Sciences
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): earth (175), earthquakes (34), geology (62), weather (150)
In the Classroom
Use the data to determine epicenter as well as the magnitude of an event. Use data from other sources to determine the same. Use this demo on your interactive whiteboard or projector after discussing specific information about earthquakes and part of a final project. Use the simulations to learn more about how scientists determine where earthquakes start.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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