1. Earthquake Webquest Project
Introduction
NEWS FLASH: A terrible earthquake has hit the town of Shakeville.
Many houses and buildings were destroyed, and the people of the town
are very upset and afraid. The people of Shakeville need to learn more
about earthquakes and earthquake safety so that they will know what
to do if an earthquake ever strikes their town again.
The Task
It is your responsibility, as members of the National Disaster Taskforce
for the Shakeville News Team, to help the community of Shakeville
understand earthquakes and how to be safe in the event of future
quakes. As a team you will be creating a broadcasted special about
earthquakes. This special should be informative for all of Shakeville's
citizens including information about equipment used to detect
earthquakes, causes of earthquakes, and history of earthquake
damage and earthquake safety. You will also be responsible for
designing and producing a Newscast video or PowerPoint
presentation about earthquakes and earthquake safety to inform the
community members. Your taskforce must become experts in the field
of earthquakes in order to be successful at this task. Good Luck!
Process
In order to complete your task and educate the townspeople on
earthquakes and how to stay safe during an earthquake, each person
in your group will be given one of four different jobs. When you are
assigned this job, it will be your mission to find out as much as you
can on the subject. You will be the expert on what you find, so make
sure you work as hard as you can to teach the people of this town
more about earthquakes. After doing the research on each topic using
the links provided, you will share your individual results with your
other group members. Once each group member has presented
his/her findings, your group will work together to plan how to present
this information to this class in a newscast format. Also, your group
will make a video webcast or PowerPoint with the information you have
found.

2. You will join two different groups on Edmodo. One group will be your
Presentation Group and will include 1 of each:
Geologist,
Seismologist,
Safety Expert
Damage Investigator
This is your “News Team Group”. The second group will be composed
of everyone else in the class that has the same assignment as you do.
(All Geologists, all safety experts, etc.) This is your “Professional
Group”.
During the research phase of your project, you will work with other
members of the class who have the same job assignment as you do.
(Research group) You may share information and resources and work
together on gathering your information, however, each person is
responsible for creating a unique and separate contribution to the
original News Team group.
After all the groups have finished the research, you will re-join your
“News Team Group” and create either a video webcast or a PowerPoint
presentation and then each group will present their findings to the
class. You will also post your video webcast or PowerPoint on Edmodo
so that you can help your class learn more about earthquakes.
Grading:
Your grade will be based on:
Quality of information
Group participation
Your presentation and
Your Video or PowerPoint.
See attached grading rubric.

3. Here is information and some details about each position:
Seismologist:
You will be in charge of finding different types of instruments
that seismologists use to study and learn about earthquakes.
It is your job to find at least five different types of methods and
instruments that seismologists use to measure earthquakes and
explain them to your audience..
Describe what seismologists do when an earthquake happens.
Are they able to predict when and where the next earthquake
will happen?
Geologist
You will be in charge of looking at the reasons earthquakes
occur.
You will be able to explain what tectonic plates are and what the
theory of Plate Tectonics is.
You will describe how the Earth’s mantle and tectonic plates play
a role in earthquakes.
You will explain what fault lines are, what kind of faults there are
and how to predict where earthquakes are likely to happen.
Safety Expert
Your job will be to research how to stay safe when an
earthquake happens.
Explain what people can do to stay safe before an earthquake
hits if they live in an area where earthquakes are likely to
happen.
Create a list of at least 10 things people should have in an
earthquake kit.
Describe at least three ways builders can make buildings safe in
earthquake areas.
Damage Investigator
You will compare the difference between earthquakes measuring
2.0, 4.0, 7.0, etc on the Richter scale and find pictures of the
differences.
You will study earthquakes that have taken place in history and
report on the damage they have caused.
Compare the damage done by earthquakes of the same size in
different areas of the world and give reasons why some caused
more damage than others. (good examples would be the 2010
7.0 earthquake in Haiti vs. the 7.2 earthquake in Mexicali,

4. Mexico).
You will also report on the 2011 earthquake in Japan and find
what other areas of the world could have a similar earthquake.
Your resources:
Please use books from our classroom and the library, the
websites listed on Edmodo.
If you find additional websites that you think are useful,
please tell me so I can post them for others to use.