Schools Study Earthquakes

Hosted by OSOS , contributed by zygouritsas on 6 February 2018

The specific project adresses the challenge of the study of a physical phenomenon with great societal impact and proposes pedagogical practices based on inquiry‐based methods that are more effective in science education. The objective of this combination is on one hand to increase children’s and student’s interest in science, on how science is made and how it affects everyday life, and on the other to stimulate teacher motivation on up‐taking innovative teaching methods, subjects and practices to enrich and renew the science curriculum.

The key is to provide increased opportunities for cooperation and collaboration between schools across European countries (mainly countries of the European South that experiencing seismic activity) and encourage relationships between stakeholders of both formal and informal education by establishing a network of schools that will study real data, do real analysis of real seismic activity in real time and will present their results to their communities.

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The specific project engages students in employing real‐problem solving skills, handling and studying situations, and participating in meaningful and motivating science inquiry activities. The RRI component of the project lies in the fact that students deal with real seismic data that they have acquired themselves while they have to communicate their findings to the local communities. In countries like Greece, Italy and Bulgaria the phenomenon is rather common. Surveys in the field demonstrate that the general public is not well informed on the necessary measures that have to be applied to minimize the impact of the natural phenomenon. A complicated geophysical phenomenon like the earthquake is possible to be studied in the classroom with the use of a simple instrument and results can be obtained with the combination of data from the collaborating schools. The aim of the activity is to create a network of OSOS schools (Hubs and connected schools) that will be active in citizen seismology.

RRI Principles
One of the key aspects of OSOS is the inclusion of RRI - Responsible Research and Innovation principles in innovative pedagogical practices. RRI principles are addressed in the "Schools Study Earthquakes" accelerator:

Governance	Students have the support and feedback of a wide range of stakeholders, with whom they share the responsibility of the activity, its evolution and the conclusions drawn in relation to the study of earthquakes. Students for example are in continuous contact with some stakeholders, such as experts, with whom they meet with the objective of sharing the responsibility of designing their actions but also their findings.
Public engagement	Different stakeholders participate throughout the project in order to enrich the results obtained in their development. In addition, students are in contact with other OSOS Schools Participants, creating a network to exchange content around seismology. Students contact families and members of the societies (to know and understand their stance towards the different issues of earthquakes) but also experts (to understand the more scientific details of these natural phenomena).
Gender equality	Girls and boys equally participate and share their ideas. Students work on the issues related to earthquakes that correspond to both men and women, providing an equal vision of the problems.
Science Education	The "Schools Study Earthquakes" accelerator engages students in employing real‐problem solving skills, handling and studying situations, and participating in meaningful and motivating science inquiry activities
Ethics	Students understand how to manage real data and are able to know the importance of working and experimenting with this type of information, reflecting on the need to provide full mechanisms for scientific research. While working with real earthquake data, students value the integrity of these data and the importance of being responsible for its use, as well as for the conclusions and results extracted.
Open Access	Society is not aware of the reality of earthquakes in their environment, so this Accelerator plays a very important role in disseminating intermediate results and conclusions to the public. Students are able to elaborate these materials and share them openly, and completely free of charge, to all those sectors that may be interested (such as neighbors and families).

Learning Objectives

study in the reality of classroom practice of a physical phenomenon with great societal impact and proposes pedagogical practices based on inquiry‐based methods that are more effective in science education

Teacher: zygouritsas

Age group

12-15

15-18

Students participating

250

Thematic Area: ICT

Se sentir

This phase introduces students to the world of earthquakes and its consequences, both social and economic as well as physical and scientific. Not only what earthquakes are, but also how they can be measured, quantified and then studied, something that they will do in later phases through practical experimentation and real data.

How do earthquakes affect society?

The earthquake hazard poses the most serious intermediate term risk to the health, safety, and economic viability of many parts of Southern Europe and throughout the world. Recent earthquakes demonstrated the risks to modern industrial societies from such cataclysmic events, affecting everything from massive loss of life, infrastructure damage, and financial instability. Much larger earthquakes can be expected to occur adjacent to many metropolitan regions in Europe.

Practical Benefit to Society:

Identify and validate possible local and regional precursors to earthquakes
Refine global maps of natural hazards to support mitigation strategies
Enable rapid response to seismic disasters worldwide

Monitoring local earthquakes

Earthquakes are a daily occurrence in Greece, sitting as it does at the boundary of two tectonic plates. The district of Messinia, where our school is located, has a history of major earthquakes. In 1886, a severe earthquake of magnitude 7.5 on the Richter scale struck Filiatra. A century later, Kalamata was hit by another strong earthquake, this time of magnitude 6.0.

Earthquakes in Greece during the first week of November 2011. Due to its position at the boundary of the African and European tectonic plates, several earthquakes occur in Greece every day
Image courtesy of Panteleimon Bazanos; data source: the automated alert system of the Institute of Geodynamics at the National Observatory of Athens

Imaginer

In this stage, students imagine ways through which they can better understand the physical phenomenon of earthguakes. A first approach would be the instruments that measures their magnitude.

Build your own seismograph and develop a network of school seismographs

In this activity, students learn how a seismograph measures the shaking of the earth during an earthquake.

A typical seismograph has a pen attached to a heavy weight. The weight is free to swing back and forth, or to bounce up and down on a spring. The pen touches a rotating cylinder of paper, so that the pen draws a line as the cylinder rotates.

If the ground does not move, the pen draws a smooth straight line. But when the ground moves, the cylinder moves along with it. The heavy weight, on the other hand, has a lot of inertia and stays still. The result is that the pen draws a zigzag line on the shaking cylinder.

The stronger the shaking, the sharper the zigzags. This zigzag picture made on the paper roll is called a seismogram.

Building a seismograph (This is an example for a school-made seismograph from Science in School magazine, http://www.scienceinschool.org/2012/issue23/earthquakes)

Did you know that you can use old hi-fi speakers to detect earthquakes? And also carry out some simple earthquake experiments in the classroom? Panteleimon Bazanos shows how:

I also wanted to encourage the students to think about the technology that is used to detect and measure earthquakes and to understand what each component does, rather than viewing a seismograph as a ‘black box’. To this end, we build our own seismograph, with which we can detect local earthquakes – up to 100-200 km away, depending on their magnitude.

At the heart of any seismograph are the geophones. They convert the ground vibrations into electrical signals using a coil that moves relative to a magnet, producing an electrical voltage at the end of the coil (Faraday’s law; figure 4). To build our seismograph, we used everyday technology as the geophone: a loudspeaker. Normally, loudspeakers operate by converting an electrical signal into the relative movement of a coil and a magnet, which causes the cone to move in and out, thus generating vibrations: sound waves (figure 5). By making them operate the other way round – turning vibrations into electrical signals – they can be made to function as geophones.

Figure 4: How a geophone works. When the ground vibrates, the mass with the coil attached to it moves relative to the magnet. The potential difference produced in the connectors depends on the way the ground vibrates.
Click on image to enlarge.
Image courtesy of Panteleimon Bazanos

Figure 5: How a loudspeaker works. As the function of loudspeakers is based on the relative movement of coil and magnet, we can use them to detect ground vibrations. These vibrations move the coil relative to the magnet, producing a potential difference between the coil’s connectors. This electrical signal is recorded by the computer via the sound card, in the same way as input from a microphone would be^w5
Image courtesy of Iain Fergusson; image source: Wikimedia Commons

To make our geophone, we used a ‘woofer’ – a speaker for low-pitched sounds – because woofers are designed to work well for low frequencies, and seismic waves are of course low-frequency vibrations. To minimise interference from sound vibrations, we removed the cone of the loudspeaker.

Figure 6: Our homemade geophone

Image courtesy of Panteleimon Bazanos

To complete our geophone (figure 6), we also used a weight, a spring and the lid of a spray can. The weight serves to increase the inertia, as the loudspeaker coil itself is very light. Placing a weight directly onto the coil would damage it, so we used the spring to hold the weight over the coil, allowing it to oscillate. The lid protected the coil. We then plugged our woofer geophone into the sound-card port of a computer, and recorded the signals using sound-editing software, creating a working seismograph.

Detailed instructions for building our seismograph can be downloaded from the Science in School website^w6.

Check related activities from a national contest in Greece: http://seismografos.ea.gr/ergasies21017

Créer

There is series of activities related to “Schools Study Earthquakes”
1. Network of schools. The activities of the “Schools Study Earthquakes” will support an already established network of schools that are equipped with seismometers. These schools will collaborate with research institutions and local stakeholders in innovative educational activities and will support the introduction of new schools in the network.

2. School Contest “Build your own seismograph. In the context of the “Schools Study Earthquakes”, Ellinogermaniki Agogi in collaboration with the National Observatory of Athens will organize the educational contest “Build your own seismograph”. Student groups are invited in collaboration with their teachers to build an improvised seismograph and record the whole process in a presentation accompanied by photographic or other audiovisual material.
The evaluation of the work will be done by a committee meeting the following criteria:

Quality: the presentation of the work must be complete and have a good structure.
Scientific correctness:the work must contain scientifically correct explanations,interpretations and descriptions and not refer to sources that create false perceptions or misconceptions about the phenomenon under consideration.
Providing multiple means of representation: presenting the information with different means of representation e.g. accompanied by audiovisual material. Emphasis on skills development (exploratory learning, problem solving, creativity) and student personality as well as emphasis on cooperation and group work.
Inclusion of individuals from vulnerable social groups and people with disabilities and skills.
Emphasis on students'understanding of the civil protection parameters related to the treatment and prevention of earthquake impact in our country.

3. European Student Science Parliament. The activities of the “Schools Study Earthquakes” will support the European Student Science Parliament on Earthquakes.
The theme area is "Earthquakes: Exploring Current Achievements, Future Challenges and Expectations in the Field of Education, Tackling and Prevention" and is divided into three sub‐areas that are:
Topic 1: Education. Students will need to explore and propose new ways to educate and inform about earthquakes. In recent years, there has been a lot of effort by the educational community to inform and educate students. One of these is the action "Make your own seismograph". What other actions could be implemented in schools? Who could work with students in this endeavor?
Topic 2: Addressing. There are already several known ways of dealing with earthquakes. Based on what could improve them or which ones could be proposed and implemented? Could new technologies help deal with earthquakes and how?
Theme 3: Prevention. In recent years, a number of actions have been taken to address preventive actions to address situations arising from seismic activities. How do you think they can be improved in relation to information actions, actions to build safe buildings? What methods do you think are the most effective or what new ones could you suggest?
Within the framework of these activities, workshops will be organized to support teachers participating in the action, informing them about how to integrate methods into teaching and how to support the whole process. Throughout the course of the action and the conduct of the student parliament, students work on the themes they have chosen to better understand the subject, draw conclusions and formulate their own positions and suggestions on the subject. Through this process students cultivate those skills that are necessary for a thorough argumentation in favor of their positions. Throughout this effort, their assistants are, in addition to the teachers of the school, well‐ respected scientists and researchers, experts in every subject who answer their questions, propose bibliography and give directions.

4. Research on earthquake awareness and earthquake protection for students and parents. All activities of OSOS study, research, recommend and encourage modern school to acquire the characteristics of an open, innovative and democratic "ecosystem", with active participation in both the educational and the local community. An "open school" that exploits educational innovation, the tools of discovery learning, technology, teaching natural, humanitarian and social sciences to study and palpate local issues. A school that is in constant interaction with the local community and evolving as its equal social partner. This school listens to the problems of the local community and acts accordingly. It plans and implements actions that increase the scientific capital of both the school organization and society. A typical example of such an action is to conduct research on earthquake awareness and earthquake protection for students and parents.

Hosted by OSOS , contributed by zygouritsas on 6 February 2018

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