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VIRTUAL
SEISMIC STATION
TEACHER
WORKSHOP
Michael D. Wolter
Muncie Central High School
ppmun@muncie.k12.in.us
I. Workshop Goals
This project provides introductory training for high school and middle school science teachers in the operation of virtual seismic stations in their classrooms. 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 inservice training programs during the 2001-2002 school year. The tentative dates are:
September 25th, October 9th, and October 23rd.
II. Workshop Structure
The workshop will consist of
three, 3 hour Tuesday evening sessions from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. (See the specific
outline included in this posting.) 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 on 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 School 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 educationto 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 primary presenter will be Mike Wolter (Pam Mink
will also be assisting as a facilitator in the formal presentations). Mike
and Pam have been PEPP participants since the first IU PEPP workshop.The workshops
will have four main components (1) how to connect to the PPMUN seismic station
data stream through the school networks, (2) how to connect to or view other
seismic data streams via the internet, (3) how to use seismic data streams
for classroom instruction that supports the current Indiana Academic Standards,
and (4) how to raise the awareness and knowledge of teleseismic and local
earthquake activity for students in Muncie Community Schools.
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. Duplication of written materials and downloadable software resources will be provided by Muncie Schools. 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.
IV. Workshop Outlines (next three pages)
VIRTUAL SEISMIC STATIONS
IN
I.
Introductions Presenters and participants (Computer lab. - 30 minutes)
A.
Pre-registration - MCS inservice sign-up
B. Sign-in,
name tags, email addresses, timesheets, etc.
C. Orientation
to facilities and rooms.
D. Verification
of participants classroom computer resources
E. Tour
of seismic station.
II.
Earthquakes and seismology overview (Computer lab. - 60 minutes)
A.
Plate Tectonics model TASA computer software
B.
Seismic wave model Seismic Waves and Seismic Eruptions software
C.
Plate boundaries and seismic wave posters USGS & IRIS
III.
Break (10
minutes)
IV.
Software installation (Computer lab 70 minutes)
B. SCREAM
settings and help manual
C.
Viewing data stream - PPMUN
D.
Viewing other data streams PPBLO, etc.
V.
Participant assignmentó(Computer lab 10 minutes)
VIRTUAL SEISMIC STATIONS
IN
I.
Observations, events, and questions (Computer lab - 15 min)
B.
Questions on bugs or crashes
II.
Analysis of Seismic Waves (Computer lab - 70 min)
1.
P and S arrivals
2.
Origin time and distance
3.
Locating the source
III.
Break (10 minutes)
IV.
Analysis of Seismic Waves continued (Computer lab - 45 min)
V.
Earthquake links on the Internet (Computer lab - 45 min)
VI.
Participant assignment
VIRTUAL SEISMIC STATIONS
IN
Third Session: 6:00 to 9:00 PM (October 23rd)
I.
Reports on observed events (Computer lab - 30 min)
II.
Curriculum resources (Computer lab - 60 minutes)
III.
Break (10 minutes)
IV.
Curriculum resources continued (Computer lab - 60 minutes)
VI. Implementation Follow-up
1.
E-mail survey of participants
2.
Submission of new curriculum materials to PEPP site
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. The evaluation of the logistics, structure, and presentation quality will provided by that instrument.
Actual classroom curriculum activities carried out
by the participants will occur after the workshops have been completed. We will be using an email 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 instructional 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.