So you’ve finished teaching the types of plate boundaries and continental drift. Now it’s time to get to the more exiting stuff… earthquakes! I just so happened to be teaching earthquakes when the Turkey earthquake of 2023 occurred. Students were glued to news sites and I tried to really foster empathy within my students as we talked about the death toll and long term impacts. Listed below are some of the resources I used to teach my students about earthquakes.
Earthquake Lesson Plan Ideas
1. I use these powerpoints to teach students all about earthquakes and seismic waves. You can find them on TpT or on my website.
2. How do we use seismic waves to make inferences about the layers of the Earth? Check out this interactive from JavaLab that shows how seismic waves travel through each of Earth’s layers.
3. Want to model P and S waves? Slinkys are great, but I HIGHLY recommend you watch this YouTube clip on how Dr. Keith Miller models seismic waves ability to pass through solids and liquids. After I did this with my own students, they really grasped the difference between P and S waves.
4. Here is an interactive you might want students to explore: https://ds.iris.edu/seismon/swaves/index.php
5. Want to build an easy earthquake shake table? This method only takes a few minutes and uses supplies I guarantee you have laying around your classroom.
6. Can humans predict earthquakes? Check out this podcast episode from Skeptoid. You can play the audio for students, or print out the transcript for students to read.
7. If you have earthquake compasses (affiliate link) in your classroom, you can teach students the triangulation method of finding an earthquake epicenter. Students really enjoy using them! You can find a lesson with three triangulation seismograms and maps on my website or on TpT.
8. If you would like to model how tsunamis impact coastlines, here is a fun activity from Teach Engineering.
Rock on,
