An inquiry unit that teaches students about the how and why earthquakes cause damage and about life in earthquake country. Students specifically learn about: earthquake damage, where earthquake occur, earthquake patterns, seismic waves,...

A suite of lessons focusing on all aspects of earthquakes. Inquiry-based exploration of earthquakes includes measuring seismic waves, predicting earthquakes, investigating magnitude and intensity, mapping fault lines, and evaluating...

Students will examine patterns between volcanic activity and seafloor features. NASA tracked volcanic activity for 15 years and created an animated map from their data. Compare this map to a map of seafloor features to reveal interesting...

Students construct a shake table, then build towers of different heights using Lego blocks, and test their stability on this platform. Next, they test towers with different sized bases, and towers made using different materials.

Students investigate how often earthquakes of various magnitudes happen within specific geographic regions.

Readings and news articles provide information on the debate over nuclear energy. In particular, the questions being raised due to the crisis in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami in March, 2011.

This activity asks students to demonstrate how hard they think the ground shakes during an earthquake.

Students will be using live data about volcanoes and earthquakes to look for patterns and understand why natural disasters may or may not be able to be predicted. Resources include helpful websites, a video of the lesson in action,...

A demo of how can we model seismic waves in the classroom. [8:27]

Students examine images of faults and folds, then experiment with two models to collect evidence to determine how the structures formed.

In this lesson plan, students are introduced to a variety of natural hazards and explore how understanding these threats make us better able to avoid or reduce their potential harmful impact.