[irised] Message from Jerry Cook (J.Bob)

[John or Jan Lahr]

Jerry Cook (alias J.Bob) teaches at the Phoenix, Arizona, Country Day School,
sent this message recently which contains a lot of practical suggestions as to
how the classroom AS-1 seismic system can be used.

How are others integrating their seismic system into their teaching?

Cheers,
John Lahr



 >Dear Team Seismic,
 >First let me assure you that I will get my seismogram up and running
 >again when I get back to America. I have been an exchange teacher in
 >China for three months and the school seismogram broke down the day
 >I left. I have tried to get IT at my school to get it running but to
 >no avail. The link to the article did not work but I can guess at
 >its contents. I think that without curriculum integration the
 >seismogram would be of very limited value. It would be just like a
 >pretty mineral in a glass case, nice to look at but of no
 >educational value other than curiosity. I make the seismogram an
 >important part of my class by following the outline below in more or
 >less this order;
 >1. Explain how the machine works.
 >2. Using, interactive web sites, video, springs, and worksheets
 >teach wave motion
 >3. Help the students interpret seismographs that our seismogram
 >recorded previously.
 >4. Teach the kids to extract earthquakes using AmaSeis.
 >5. Teach the kids to calculate distances for nearby events.
 >6. I have a stack of hundreds of maps available so that whenever
 >there is a local event (within 1000 km) the kids can immediately
 >draw a circle around Phoenix and guess at the location of the
 >earthquake using their knowledge of plate boundaries.
 >7. I have the students check our near real time link at home each
 >night and they can print the screen, circle the event, and have
 >their parents sign it for extra credit.
 >8. If the students do some research and present to the class they
 >get more extra credit.
 >9. If they install AmaSeis at home and upload the .sac file they get
 >more extra credit.
 >10. As earthquakes occur we discuss the peculiarities of each
 >recording and post them on the wall. The kids learn to tell
 >immediately if the event is close, medium, or far away just by
 >seeing the shape of the recording.
 >11. We plot all of the earthquakes on a world map throughout the year.
 >
 >I have a whole file drawer set aside for earthquakes.
 >
 >
 >I would like to have the kids triangulate using seismographs from
 >other schools but by the time we get three stations to upload the
 >.sac file the kids already know where the epicenter is. They/I go
 >straight to the Internet after we have made our predicted location.
 >Time is of the essence.
 >Peace,
 >J. Bob