Data-Collection Instructions:
To add a data set from the web to ArcVoyager

(These are very brief, so if I completely skipped a step, let me know)

1. Go to: USGS Earthquake Hazards Program website – Latest Earthquakes – Feeds & Data
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/catalogs/

2. Under CSV files select ‘M 1+ earthquakes, past day’

3. Save the Page as a text file.

4. Open Microsoft Excel, import saved data as comma delimited. Save spreadsheet on the C: drive as a tab delimited txt. file.

5. Open ArcVoyager and themes World30.shp and Country.shp and make them active.

6. Add a table in ArcVoyager and select the Excel file that you just saved.

7. Add Event Theme and select your data file, make sure the x and y coordinates are the lat. and lon.

8. Make your new theme active to view the earthquake locations.

I like using current data where you don't know what the outcome will be. I think that doing that kind of work peeks interest and opens things up for students to be curious. (and I assume it is surprising to see how many earthquakes there really are.)

The steps work fine, as they brought to mind what we did this summer. I may suggest first creating a assingment folder on the C drive and saving work there rather than just at the root of the C drive, making it easier to find later.

Do you do an overview of ArcVoyager before the students get a poke at it?

Z-YA;

Arnold

After thinking about what you have hear and how I might take it into my math class, 2 things come to mind:

1- do the earthquake daily over a period of time and make different graphs using position and intesity data. Then asks students to make predictions about location and strenght of future events. I know that quake prediction is not that simple, but I think the process of looking at data and seeing what conclusion you can draw can extracted here.

2- Use the long/lat data as a way to work on coordinate graphing skills either by hand or thru some drawing program.

Anyway jsut a couple thoughts;

Z-YA;

Arnold

I also like the use of current data. I agree with Arnold that students will be surprised at the large number of earthquakes each day. I think your idea, Becky, of starting with a smaller data set is smart. It will be more manageable as students are learning the steps to follow. Then adding more data will allow students to see trends.