Learning Teams

• Red - Favorite hobbies• Green - Favorite place on earth• Blue – Teaching situation (Grade level, courses, etc)• Yellow – Favorite activity for students• Brown – Professional Development (Likes in and

dislikes of recent learning)• Orange - Wildcard (tell us anything about yourself!)

Gayle Levy, IRIS Consortium

IRIS Seismographs in Schools Program

September 19, 2008

100’s of research grade

1000’s of AS1s

10,000’s using seismology data

Using seismological data to increasing students awareness of the “active Earth system,” & enhance their understanding of its structure & function

Vision for Educational Seismology

AS1 Seismograph Distribution

(Image produced by Russ Welti, IRIS)

Over ~140 AS1s distributed to schools & science centers since 2000

Why an AS1s in the classroom?• Inexpensive, open design allows

components to be easily viewed• Increases student proximity to content

– Earthquake frequency– Plate tectonics– Epicenter location– Magnitude calculation– Leads into web tool explorations such as

determining earth structure

• Explore POS/science fair projects• Flexible classroom implementation

Basic Implementation

• Only runs AS1 prior to and following the geophysics unit

• Keeps record of what version of software is being run etc.

• Prints seismograms and posts them next to a world map so students can view them

Intermediate Implementation• Same as Basic Implementation• Keeps station catalog of events recorded on station looking

up parameters on USGS website.• Has SnagIt running so helicorder is displayed on the web• Shares image files of events recorded with other teachers• Calculates magnitudes for events from records for very large

events• Determines distance to event from records for very large

events• Downloads data from SpiNet for further exploration or

comparison

Advanced Implementation• Same as Intermediate Implementation• Assigns students on rotating basis to keeps station catalog of events

recorded by looking up parameters on USGS website • Assigns students to keep station catalog of events not recorded by the AS-1

(notifications by USGS)• Analyzes data for smaller events or other interesting recordings for process

of science• Has students calculate magnitude of events from records for very large

events• Has students determines distance to event from records for very large events• Has students explore process of science with data or use data for science fair

projects.• Uploads large events to SpiNet to share with other teachers• Runs geophysics club

Outcomes for workshop

• Set-up, calibrate, operate and troubleshoot their AS-1 seismograph.

• Use data collected from their AS-1 seismograph as an integral part of their seismology/plate tectonics instruction. – New content knowledge– New activities using seismic data in the classroom– Experience using both activities and data

• Participate as part of a larger community of educational seismograph users.

Participate……

• as an active participant learning through demonstrations and activities,

• as an educator, aware of how your students will interact with the materials and activities,

• and as an peer, providing feedback and suggestions to the presenters and the other participants.

Leaving Ready to Implement

Idea/Action & Details

Relation to instruction

Resources Necessary ($,

Time, Personnel)

Target Start

Target Completion

What? Why?

A few caveats before we begin our sessions

• Seismograms are inherently complex because the Earth is complex

• Seismogram interpretation is real science which is often messy. Thus a bit of data (seismogram) isn’t really enough to provide a clear picture… tie to USArray (seismologists used to do what teachers do)

• Magnitude is not universal… that results will vary from station to station. magnitude