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Seismic Station Workshop

Pam Mink
Muncie Central High School
2002

 

I. Workshop Goals

This workshop will provide introductory training for high school and middle school science teachers in the operation of seismic stations. Participants will be given the resources and support materials needed to take advantage of the PEPP network of seismic stations through the internet. The pilot project will be conducted as part of the Muncie Community Schools technology in-service training programs during the 2002-2003 school year.

I would also like to set up an outreach program with my high school students and elementary students.

We tried this program during the 2002 – 2003 school year. I would like to make the following improvements:

 

II. Workshop Structure

The workshop will consist of three, 1-hour sessions. The workshop will be held in the computer laboratory used by the science department at Muncie Central High School. This particular lab has 28 Pentium III stations connected to the school network.

The initial participants will be science teachers from Muncie Community Schools. These teachers will come from the two high schools, two middle schools, two alternative schools, and nine elementary schools, which are all linked by a corporation wide computer network system. Most of the teachers in Muncie Schools are not aware that a research grade seismic station resides in their network with data available to them for earthquake education. This project will take advantage of that network linkage and the resources provided through PEPP to establish virtual seismic stations in science classrooms throughout Muncie Community Schools.

In addition, Muncie Central High Schools is part of the Professional Development Schools Network sponsored by Ball State University. The Director of Emergency Management for Delaware County is also interested in providing outreach resources and earthquake education to other school corporations in our area. These partnerships will provide logistical and networking resources for additional workshops with extensions to other school corporations in this area as this project proposal and interest evolves during the coming year.

The presenters will be Pam Mink and Mike Wolter. Mike and Pam have been PEPP participants since the first IU PEPP workshop. The workshops will have four main components:

 

III. Instructional Materials

Specific instructional materials are being developed from the many and varied resources provided during the past several years of PEPP participation. A final presentation package will be provided to the IU PEPP program following the completion of the first set of workshops. Free resources from IRIS and the Indiana Geological Survey will also be provided to participants. Muncie Schools will provide duplication of written materials and downloadable software resources. Specific authorization to distribute SCREAM and other licensed PEPP software resources to participants will be provided through support from the IU and Princeton PEPP directors. Allstate or American Red Cross will also provide Masters of Disasters kits.

 

IV. Workshop Outlines (see next three pages)

VIRTUAL SEISMIC STATIONS
IN
MUNCIE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS

PRESENTATION OUTLINE

First session:


Second Session:


Third Session: 6:00 to 9:00 PM (October 23rd)

V. Workshop Follow-up

The workshop schedule provides two weeks between sessions. We are expecting the participants to have enough time to implement and try out what is covered in each session. We fully expect that the initial implementation feedback will be verbal and be software and technological problem solving in nature. Muncie Schools has its own workshop evaluation instrument that will be completed during the final workshop session. That instrument will provide the evaluation of the logistics, structure, and presentation quality.

Actual classroom curriculum activities carried out by the participants will occur after the workshops have been completed. We will be using an e-mail survey of the participants at the end of each semester to determine the content and extent of their curriculum adaptations and applications that were a direct result of having a virtual seismic station in their classroom. Participants will be encouraged to generate Web suitable documentation of their projects for posting on the IU PEPP website.

VI. PEPP Veterans Invitation

PEPP veterans that are interested in conducting similar workshops in their area and would like to observe the Muncie workshops, should contact Mike & Pam directly. Watch for the final instruction materials to be posted shortly after the last workshop in October.

VII. Closing Comments

For veteran PEPP participants, the original vision of the PEPP program has been an exciting and rewarding opportunity. Who would have thought that public school classrooms could be a successfully functioning part of a national seismic research network? Seismic awareness in PEPP station schools grows every year. Now that the PEPP network is functioning, the final phase of reaching out to every science classroom in the country with on-line data streams, supporting educational resources, and peer experts becomes possible. This virtual Seismic Station workshop represents our local attempt to carry out the PEPP vision.

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