EARTHQUAKES
Make a Quake
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Grades: K-6
Length: 1 hour
Topics: earthquakes, how energy travels, and where earthquakes occur
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In our “Make a Quake” lesson, in partnership with the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network
(PNSN) at UW, students interact and experiment with a real, live-streaming seismometer to
understand how ground shaking is recorded by the seismic monitoring instruments. Students
generate their own ground shaking by jumping and running in place to see how this is recorded
by the seismometer. They also get to shake a seismometer to learn how seismometers turns
shaking motions into electrical signals we can analyze on computers (they get a little shock!).
This lesson can be question-driven or worksheet-driven and we offer our worksheets in both
English and Spanish.
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Earthquake Shakes​
Grades: K-8
Length: 1 hour
Topics: earthquakes, effects of earthquakes on structures
In our “Earthquake Shakes” lesson, we teach students about how earthquake shaking affects
buildings and how earthquake engineers construct and retrofit buildings to be safe in
earthquakes. We do a hands-on activity where students design and build structures and test them
on earthquake shake tables to see if their building can withstand seismic shaking. They have the
opportunity to revise their building design and re-test their buildings.
