A note on this storyline: This unit focuses on the potential threat of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions to New York City residents, as the schools it was originally designed for are located there. If you are not based in New York, consider adapting the materials to replace New York with your own city or town!
Engage: Get scholars excited to learn about some of the most powerful, devastating natural
events on Earth volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. By the end of the Engage section, scholars should be invested in the Essential Question: Do New York City residents need to worry about earthquakes and volcanoes?
- Lesson 1: What Are Natural Disasters? In this introductory investigation, scholars share what they already know about natural disasters. They assess New York City’s risk of experiencing natural disasters by digging into several online resources.
- Lesson 2: Mapping Natural Disasters Scholars study the connection between plate tectonics and natural disasters. They discover that proximity to a plate boundary greatly increases your chances of experiencing a natural disaster!
Explore: Prepare for an earthquake to rock the science lab! In these investigations, scholars discover the connection between tectonic plate activity and the formation of earthquakes and volcanoes. Through modeling, reading, studying footage, and re-creating earthquakes, scholars learn about their devastating effects.
- Lesson 3: Shaky Ground Now that they know where earthquake waves come from, scholars learn how earthquake waves travel through the Earth to the surface. They study the three major waves that occur during every earthquake and explore their effects on Earth’s surface.
- Lesson 4: Volcano Formation It’s time for an explosion! Scholars model volcanic eruption and formation to learn how the composition of magma affects volcanic activity.
- Lesson 5: Measuring Earthquakes In this investigation, scholars read eyewitness statements to explore the ways in which we measure earthquakes. By using seismographs to re-create earthquakes in the classroom, they learn how the energy/magnitude of an earthquake relates to the damage it causes in a given area.
- Lesson 6: The Aftermath Believe it or not, volcanic eruptions aren’t all bad. Scholars read about the impacts of volcanic activity on Earth and compare their findings to the effects of earthquakes.
Explain: Scholars learn why tracking natural disasters and collecting data on these monumental events is so important to scientists. Through the exploration of topographic maps, scholars also learn what makes some areas more vulnerable to crippling damage.
- Lesson 7: Finding the Epicenter It’s time for some triangulation! Scholars use S–P graphs to find the distance from a given location to the epicenter of an earthquake. Then they synthesize data from multiple locations to pinpoint the epicenter of an earthquake.
- Lesson 8: Topographic Maps Scholars construct topographic maps to determine areas most affected by volcanic activity. Scholars consider how topographic maps allow us to better assess risk and mitigate damage before disasters occur.
Elaborate: Scholars apply their newfound understanding to engineer a model building that can withstand a simulated earthquake. Working in teams, they collaborate to design and construct a building, run trials, and revise their work.
- Lesson 9: Earthquake Design Challenge We know that earthquakes are inevitable in many areas. If we don’t want to politely request that everyone move out of California or rebuild the same skyscraper every year when it falls over again, we must design structures that are earthquake-safe! Scholars work in teams to design earthquake-resistant structures.
Evaluate: Earthquake or volcano? Which is the most threatening catastrophic event faced by the people of New York City? Scholars synthesize their takeaways from each investigation as they construct arguments for a culminating debate.
- Lesson 10: Using Historical Data In this culminating investigation, scholars compare the causes and impacts of earthquakes and volcanoes. Scholars debate: Are earthquakes or volcanoes ultimately a greater threat to New York City? How worried should we be about the safety of our own homes?
Note: This unit overview is flexible. When teaching the Explore and Explain lessons, the content toggles between earthquakes and volcanoes. An alternative approach would be to teach the earthquake lessons in succession and the volcano lessons in succession as mini Explore–Explain cycles (in the order listed below).
- Earthquake Content Lessons:
- Lesson 3
- Lesson 5
- Lesson 7
- Volcano Content Lessons:
- Lesson 4
- Lesson 6
- Lesson 8