HR: 1340h
AN: ED53A-0330    [Abstracts]
TI: A Kinesthetic Demonstration for Locating Earthquake Epicenters
AU: * Keyantash, J
EM: jkeyantash@csudh.edu
AF: California State University, Dominguez Hills, Dept. of Earth Sciences 1000 E. Victoria St., Carson, CA 90747 United States
AU: Sperber, S
EM: ssperb1@lausd.k12.ca.us
AF: Los Angeles Unified School District, 333 S. Beaudry Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90017 United States
AB: During Spring 2005, an inquiry-based curriculum for plate tectonics was developed for implementation in sixth-grade classrooms within the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Two cohorts of LAUSD teachers received training and orientation to the plate tectonics unit during one week workshops in July 2005. However, during the training workshops, it was observed that there was considerable confusion among the teachers as to how the traditional "textbook" explanation of the time lag between P and S waves on a seismogram could possibly be used to determine the epicenter of an earthquake. One of the State of California science content standards for sixth grade students is that they understand how the epicenters of earthquakes are determined, so it was critical that the teachers themselves grasped the concept. In response to the adult learner difficulties, the classroom explanation of earthquake epicenter location was supplemented with an outdoor kinesthetic activity. Based upon the experience of the kinesthetic model, it was found that the hands-on model greatly cemented the teachers' understanding of the underlying theory. This paper details the steps of the kinesthetic demonstration for earthquake epicenter identification, as well as offering extended options for its classroom implementation.
DE: 0805 Elementary and secondary education
DE: 0830 Teacher training
DE: 0845 Instructional tools
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005