Rock Blog

Explore the World of Earth Science”

A description of the site is provided by the authors below.. Though created to accompany a high school text, many of the animations and investigations are applicable to higher level and general study of the field. I can see pointing to specific parts of this site in my EOSC 311 course!

This snippet was taken from the “Using the Exploring Earth” web site. The page covers what the site is about, as well as technical requirements.

The investigations and visualizations on this site were designed to accompany Earth Science, a high school textbook authored by Spaulding and Namowitz and published by McDougal Littell. The Web site was developed by TERC, a non-profit educational research and development firm in collaboration with McDougal Littell. Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation.

Visualizations and investigations on the site were designed to build students’ knowledge of Earth Science concepts described in the textbook, and to raise student awareness of Earth as a system of interconnected components and processes.

Discovery Channel – Make a Quake.

The size of a quake is not the only variable to consider when evaluating the magnitude of damage that might ensue.

This Flash-based simulation allows one to choose different substrates, select quake-proofing technologies and subject a building to different size quakes. It then describes the “aftermath”.

It’s a good activity to do to get a baseline conceptual understanding. It’s not as technical as the one I use in my class (Virtual Earthquake), but it would be a good to look at first.. then do the other exercise…

Hmmm….

This is a repost from a 2003 entry…

Thanks to the posting in today’s Distance Educator Daily News, I was drawn back to one of my favorite sites… at Earth and Environmental Courseware.

I used the first version of the “Virtual Earthquake” site when I was teaching intro geology type courses – -I’m sure I have a copy of my “Virtual Seismologist” certificate somewhere.

If you are teaching geology, or just like to learn about it, visit this site! It rocks! (yeah.. that was bad).

The site reviewed by the Christian Science Monitor in How to make your own natural disaster is of interest to me for my EOSC 311 course.

I like the National Geographic Site that they review; the resource is pretty good — but the more useful part is how the Christian Science Monitor reviews the site — good model!

The primary elements of the site are four parallel exhibits looking at Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Hurricanes and Tornadoes. Accessible through an animated matrix on the index page, as well as through a screen top navigation bar visible throughout the site, each exhibit supplements the basic facts with Forces’ most conspicuous visitor draw – the ability to create your own natural disasters. But in the interests of education, the individual sections only present these interactive phenomena after you’ve learned the basics behind the real things.