Grade 4
Unit 2: The Great CA Shakeout
Essential Question: What can we do to reduce the impacts of an earthquake?
“Each year the southern California area has about 10,000 earthquakes. Most of them are so small that they are not felt.” - Source: U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
Project Description: Every year, CA schools, businesses and organizations come together to join the world’s largest earthquake drill called The Great CA Shakeout. This project was created to help young people understand why it’s important to prepare for and reduce the impacts from an earthquake. Students learn about earthquakes through sharing their own experiences, listening to family stories, reading first person accounts from CA history and analyzing earthquake map data. Students are engineers as they work together to solve the problem of earthquakes.
next generation science standards
Performance Expectations
4-ESS3-2. Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans.* [Clarification Statement: Examples of solutions could include designing an earthquake resistant building and improving monitoring of volcanic activity.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions.]
3-5 ETS1-1. Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
3-5 ETS1-2. Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.