Lesson Plan

Powerpoint

Earthquakes

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

Videos

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