Lesson Plan

Objective

Students will learn about what causes Earthquakes, its impact and how scientists are able to read how big earthquakes are

Topics Covered

• What is the Anatomy of an Earthquake?

• What are Seismic waves?

• What is a Fault zone

• What are plate boundaries?

Vocabulary

• crust

• fault

• seismic

• stress

• epicenter

• magnitude

• mantle

• outer and inner core

• primary and secondary waves

• asthenosphere

• continental drift

• convention currents

• tremor

• seismic waves

• seismograph

Lab Content

Rapid Changes to Earth's Surface

Materials

Landslide Demonstration (1 per class)

• • 1 large plastic bin

• • newspaper

• • damp sand or dirt with bits of gravel mixed in

• • 5 medium-sized rocks

• • 2 very small plants

• • 2 pretend houses

• • 2 water bottles

Volcanoes

• • large chunks of ice on plates

• • bottles of Magic Shell ice cream topping (the kind that hardens)

Earthquake STEM

• • 1 baking dish of Jell-O® for the class (11” x 7” or 8” square dish recommended; we used 2 large boxes of Jell-O® mix)

• • toothpicks

• • mini-marshmallows

• • paper plates