HR: 1340h
AN: ED53A-0323 [Abstracts]
TI: The Waves and Tsunamis Project
AU: Lavin, M
EM: mlavin@adelphia.net
AF: Plymouth Community Intermediate School, 117 Long Pond Road, Plymouth, MA 02360
United States
AU: Strohschneider, D
EM: dstrohschneider@plymouth.k12.ma.us
AF: Plymouth Community Intermediate School, 117 Long Pond Road, Plymouth, MA 02360
United States
AU: Maichle, R
EM: rmaichle@plymouth.k12.ma.us
AF: Plymouth South Middle School, 488 Long Pond Road, Plymouth, MA 02360
United States
AU: Frashure, K
EM: kjfrash@adelphia.net
AF: University of Massachusetts - Boston, 100 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, MA 02125
United States
AU: Micozzi, N
EM: nmicozzi@plymouth.k12.ma.us
AF: Plymouth Public Schools, 488 Long Pond Road, Plymouth, MA 02360
United States
AU: * Stephen, R A
EM: rstephen@whoi.edu
AF: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 360 Woods Hole Road, Woods Hole, MA 02543-1542
United States
AB:
The goals of the Waves and Tsunamis Project are "to make waves real" to middle school students and to teach them some
fundamental concepts of waves. The curriculum was designed in Fall 2004 (before the Sumatra Tsunami) and involves an ocean
scientist classroom visit, hands-on demonstrations, and an interactive website designed to explain ocean wave properties. The
website is called 'The Plymouth Wave Lab' and it has had more than 40,000 hits since the
Sumatra event. One inexpensive and interesting demonstration is based on a string composed of alternating elastic bands and
paper clips. Washers can be added to the paper clips to construct strings with varying mass. For example, a tapered string
with mass decreasing in the wave propagation direction is an analog of tsunami waves propagating from deep to shallow water.
The Waves and Tsunamis Project evolved as a collaborative effort involving an ocean science researcher and middle school
science teachers. It was carried out through the direction of the Centers of Ocean Science Education Excellence New England
(COSEE-NE) Ocean Science Education Institute (OSEI). COSEE-NE is involved in developing models for sustainable involvement
of ocean science researchers in K-12 education ( http://necosee.net ). This work is supported by the National Science
Foundation.
UR: http://msg.whoi.edu/String_Lab/New_String_Movies.html
DE: 0805 Elementary and secondary education
DE: 0820 Curriculum and laboratory design
DE: 0830 Teacher training
DE: 0840 Evaluation and assessment
DE: 0845 Instructional tools
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005