« DataTools Activity Plan Discussion
« DataTools Activity Plan Discussion

Becky's Second Activity  

For my second DataTools activity, I plan on implementing the activity I presented in October. First, students will enter latitude and longitude data for a small set of recent earthquakes into a table in Excel. After creating a data table, students will import their data into ArcVoyager and plot it on a world map. I also hope to direct students to a site where they can find a larger set of earthquake data and have them save, format, and import this data-set into ArcVoyager and plot it along with their data.

The information that I will use comes from the USGS Earthquakes Hazard Program, http://earthquake.usgs.gov/ , and the current data is found through a link on the site, http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/catalogs/ .

If the activity takes us longer to complete than I plan for, I might end up just demonstrating how to find and import web data into ArcVoyager.

The questions that will be presented to students will be, “How many earthquakes occurred in the last 24 hours? Where did these earthquakes occur? If you look at the locations of all earthquakes in the past five(?) years, are there some areas that experienced more earthquakes than others? Did yesterday’s earthquakes occur in these high-risk areas? Why do you think so many earthquakes occur in these areas?”

This activity fits into my district’s curriculum by supporting MA Earth Science Standards:
• #2. Describe the layers of the Earth…convecting mantle…
• #3. Differentiate between radiation, conduction, and convection…
• #5. Describe how the movement of Earth’s crustal plates causes…rapid [changes].
Skills of inquiry that will be addressed through this activity will be:
• Select appropriate tools and technology (e.g., calculators, computers, thermometers, meter sticks, balances, graduated cylinders, and microscopes), and make quantitative observations.
• Present and explain data and findings using multiple representations, including tables, graphs, mathematical and physical models, and demonstrations.
• Draw conclusions based on data or evidence presented in tables or graphs, and make inferences based on patterns or trends in the data.
This activity supports my district’s goal of increasing student use of technology to learn science content.

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Nice job Becky. I like the questions that you will challenge the kids with. With the visuals, it should really get at the heart of it. I would love to input several years worth of data to see how well defined the plates would become and how significant the off-boundary quakes would appear. Do you know if any "mega" files of several years worth of quakes exist? Anyone?

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This post was edited by Phuoc Huynh on Apr, 2017
This same site has a complete database of all earthquake activity. You can even set your own parameters to get the exact data that you are looking for. Pretty cool. neic.usgs.gov/neis/epic/epic_global.html

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Nice resource. Thanks!

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