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SCEC’s mission is to gather new information about earthquakes in Southern , combine knowledge into a comprehensive understanding of earthquake phenomena, and communicate this understanding to increase earthquake awareness, reduce economic losses, and save lives.

Earthquake readiness is a key message for learners of all ages. For information and extensive resources about earthquake Earthquake Country readiness please visit the Dare to Prepare! website at: www.daretoprepare.org

Lesson Guide ECLA Educator Kits:

The ECLA Educator Kit includes an ECLA With Suggested Connections to: DVD, a book about plate tectonics, an

educational resource CD, maps, and many Science and Social Studies other items. It is available for purchase from Language Arts SCEC at a nominal cost. An online version of Map Studies the Educator Kit including online access to Mathematics the entire video is available cost free. Interdisciplinary Units To access the free online kit and get ordering ———————————————————— information for the DVD kit please visit: www.scec.org/education/ and click on the Introduction: Earthquake Country Los Angeles Video Online Kit link. Welcome to the Earthquake Country Los Angeles (ECLA) lesson guide. This guide may be used to enhance your lesson planning in your classroom, museum, community center, and many more learning environments.

Southern California is a vast natural laboratory where new discoveries about earthquakes are happening every day. Join Dr. Pat Abbott and the Southern California Earthquake Center in an introduction to this natural laboratory. ECLA can serve as a jumping off point for a variety of explorations into the fascinating world of earthquakes including investigations about earthquakes in “Geologic history is a control on human other parts of the world. history.” - Dr. Patrick L. Abbott, Host

The Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) is a multidisciplinary research and education community of over sixty institutions worldwide.

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Video Overview Sample Questions Earthquake Country Los Angeles consists of Process Sample Questions Starting the inquiry -Where do earthquakes ten segments. Each segment varies in length process occur? (from three to five minutes). The segments -What happens during an are short enough for series of compact earthquake? lessons. Observing things using -What does it feel like senses and tools when there is an earthquake? The ten chapters of the video are: -What happens to buildings during 1. Introduction earthquakes? 2. Plate Tectonics Comparing and - What different types of classifying characteristics faults are there? 3. San Andreas Fault of objects and events - What kinds of waves 4. Strike-Slip Faults are produced during an 5. Thrust Faults earthquake? 6. Northridge Quake Ordering objects on a -What is the magnitude 7. Seismic Waves scale based on scale? characteristics -How do earthquakes of 8. Reducing Your Losses different sizes compare? 9. Conclusion -How do different types of 10. Credits structures respond to earthquakes?

Suggestions for Science Identifying and describing - How is the topography relationships and of Los Angeles explained and Social Studies interactions using plate tectonics? -What happens to 1. Prior to showing the video, ask students earthquake (seismic) what they know (or what they think they waves when they pass through soft sediments? know) about the topic. Using brainstorming Inferring conclusion - Can you identify the strategies, record their ideas on chart paper based on evidence and earthquake fault types without comment. Then ask them to think of reasoning based on geological questions they have about the topic. Record evidence? this list on chart paper, too. You may - How can you better prepare your home for an generate your own questions before you earthquake? show the video but if you ask students to Sharing information with - What did you learn? generate questions, you will increase their others - How can you share attention. what you learned using pictures, formulas, 2. After showing the video, review the list of graphs or text in a what students thought they knew. Encourage presentation, discussion students to add ideas and to delete or correct or report? ideas they know now are incorrect. For middle school students doing science or 3. Allow time for students to work in small social studies involves the process of groups to write summaries. Invite groups to observing, sequencing, comparing, share their summaries and compare the classifying, relating, inferring and important ideas identified by different groups. communicating. 4. Look at the list of questions. Ask students to put a check by the questions that were An alternate strategy uses the video to focus answered by the video. Discuss how the on note taking. video answered the questions. 5. Invite students to add questions raised by watching the video.

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Skills Challenge students to think of a video they would like to see. Encourage discussion in 1. Have students prepare a notebook or groups to get a wide range of ideas. The summary sheet with the title of the video and topics covered in Earthquake Country Los the date. Engage them in a discussion of Angeles provide a good starting point. what they think main idea will be.

Alternatively, give them learning objectives - Have each student select one idea and from your program of studies (or standards) outline a video. that motivated your use of the video.

- Challenge the student to write a paper (two 2. Stop the film at three to five pre-selected pages typed) to convince Pat Abbott to places. During each pause, have students produce a video on that topic. write a summary of what they saw or learned in that segment of the video. - Remind them to consider the best grade

level for the content, what students would 3. After viewing the video, allow the students learn, and why the video would appeal to a a few minutes of silence to organize their large range of students. thoughts and to write three to five sentences that describe what they learned from the - Use writer workshops so students can video. critique, edit, and revise their papers.

Famous Earthquakes Mentioned in Vocabulary List the Video The following terms are in the video and may 1857 - Fort Tejon earthquake require further explanation. 1906 - San Francisco earthquake 1925 - Santa Barbara earthquake Acceleration 1971 - San Fernando earthquake Amplitude 1987 - earthquake Asthenosphere 1994 - Northridge earthquake Basin Suggestions for Language Block Blind thrust fault Arts Brittle movements

Carbon-14 dating Reading Improvement Coal Cripple wall The topics in the video are intended to be of high interest. Use them to entice students to Earthquake read magazine and newspaper articles, Energy check out books from the library, or search Failure the Internet for additional information. This Frequency focused approach may be successful in Friction motivating the reluctant reader, too. Geothermal energy Creative Writing Geologic time Geology

This activity encourages creative thinking and Lava gives students practice in persuasive writing. Lifelines Lithosphere

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Magma Suggestions for Map Magnitude Megapolis Studies Mountains Mud Many of the topics in Written in Stone: Mudstone Earthquake Country - Los Angeles focus on Mud pots different areas of Southern California. The following provides an opportunity to engage Natural gas students in studying maps. There is a place name list at the end of this lesson guide. Obsidian Oil Geography geology Pitch 1. Using a map or globe, locate the area or Plate collisions areas in the video; identify the cities, mountains, highways and other features Radioactive dating discussed in the video. Rayleigh wave Reservoir 2. Use map keys to help find physical Ridge Rigid brick and mortar construction geographic information that includes altitude, Rosin climate, ecological region, and predominant Rupture landforms. Discuss how these are similar or different from where the student lives. What is Sand the relationship between the geology of the Sandstone region and the content of the video? Sediment Seismic waves 3. Find information that tells about the Shear strength region’s climate and geology. How is the Stress information connected to the content of the Structural damage video? Tectonics Tectonic plates Place Name List Topography Topsoil Cities/Towns: Thrust fault Alamo Heights Trench El Centro Trough Triggering of earthquakes Los Angeles Tsunami Méxicali Northridge Vibration Palmdale Volcanic domes Pasadena Volcanic rock San Diego Volatile San Bernardino San Francisco Wrightwood

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Mountains/Hills/Valleys: Santa Barbara (UCSB) Baldwin Hills Vincent Thomas Bridge Bolsa Chica Mesa Coast Ranges Regions: Coachella Valley Baja California Cheviot Hills Great valley Dominguez Hills Gulf of California Elysian Hills Mecca Hills Mojave desert Peninsular Ranges North America Rosecrans Hills San Bernardino Mountains Western coast of the United States San Gabriel Mountains States/Countries: Santa Monica Mountains Alaska Santa Susana Mountains United States of America Sierra Nevada Mountains México (Los Estados Unidos de) Signal Hill Baja California Norte Transverse Ranges (western and eastern) Baja California Sur

Faults and Related Structures: Big Bend Elysian fault Elsinore fault Suggestions for Hollywood Santa Monica fault zone Mathematics Newport-Inglewood fault zone Palos Verdes fault zone Sierra Madre-Cucamonga fault zone Use the map key and measurements made San Andreas fault with string or flexible tape measure to San Clemente fault determine the size of the region. San Jacinto fault Santa Susana-Northridge fault zone - What is the approximate distance between a location in the video and the student’s Highways/Streets: school? Hollywood Boulevard Interstate 5 - Using a scale such as kilometers to Interstate 10 Interstate 15 centimeters, estimate how long it would take Interstate 215 to reach the destination by car (at 88 kph) or Rodeo Drive airplane (800 kph). Sunset Boulevard - Estimate how many people live in the Tectonic Plates: region. To determine population density for North American Plate the area, divide the number of people in the Pacific Plate area by the size of the area. Do you think this is useful information? Explain your answer Points of Interest: Cajon Pass Cape Mendocino Coronado Islands The Hollywood Sign La Brea Tar Pits Obsidian buttes (Salton buttes lava domes) Palos Verdes Peninsula Salton Sea San Clemente Island San Diego State University (SDSU)

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Suggestions for Teaching

Interdisciplinary Units A few days before you begin the unit, introduce the topic to your class. Invite The topics in Written in Stone: Earthquake students to bring in pictures, books or other Country - Los Angeles lend themselves to items from home. Announce the day you will inter disciplinary or thematic units. Depending begin the unit, establish a place where those on the age of your students and your items can be displayed safely, and outline a curriculum focus, a unit based on this film process for presenting and sharing those could last three to five days, or longer if items. necessary. 1. Create a KWL chart. Engage students in Planning brainstorming what they know, followed by what they want to learn. Remind students that Students learn best when they can answer they should not comment on the contributions questions, discuss and debate issues, and of others. Evaluation, refinement and ask “what if?” In particular, role-playing and reflection take place later. identifying issues or concerns spark interest and curiosity. Your task is to organize a 2. Show a video segment to introduce the value-free multidisciplinary unit that gives content. students the opportunity to develop conclusions based on evidence. This will 3. After discussing the video segment, ask require working with students to develop a students to think about issues raised in the project and a scoring rubric to evaluate it. video. Allow students several minutes to test their ideas in small groups. Then invite each For a science unit, you may include group to formalize a question, issue or earthquake waves, local geology, structural concern stemming from the video. List these reinforcement, personal community safety or for further conversation. the effect of technology on society. 4. Use the activities included with the For a social studies unit, you may include resource kit to work on vocabulary and main differences in the interpretation of historical ideas in the video. Invite students to consider events (e.g. The Great San Francisco other issues that arise while reading, writing, Earthquake of 1906); earthquake mythology; and thinking creatively. positive and negative views of expansion in earthquake prone regions worldwide; 5. Return to the list of concerns or issues. Are contributions of different members of society any suitable as topics for research, debate, or (scientists, engineers, first responders); or the point of view role-playing exercise? influence of science and engineering on modern civilization. 6. Allow time for the class to agree on a question or statement that will guide the rest It is very likely that many of your students or of your unit. Invite students to list the people their families experienced an earthquake in who would be involved in a debate. This list another country. An interesting activity may grow as students talk with their families. combining language arts and social studies is to have the student conduct a short interview For example, consider the allocation of of the family members who experienced the money to design better structures to resist earthquake. Oral history is a vital component earthquakes. of social studies.

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Those involved could include a public health California Earthquake Authority nurse who sees the budget cut, a scientist www.earthquakeauthority.com/ who seeks an opportunity to study a fault in California Geological Survey Los Angeles, a taxpayer worried about less www.consrv.ca.gov/CGS/ take-home pay, or an engineer who sees increased income from her company’s California Integrated Seismic Network growth. www.cisn.org/

California Office of Emergency Services In social studies, consider aspects of past www.oes.ca.gov/ earthquakes that were positive (resulted in better building codes) and negative (loss of California Seismic Safety Commission life). Those involved could be a firefighter, a www.seismic.ca.gov/ shop owner, school principal, mayor, and an engineer. California Seismic Safety Commission Homeowner's And Commercial Property Owner's Guides to Earthquake Safety 7. Work with groups to help students choose www.seismic.ca.gov/sscpub.htm role. Make sure that at least three students prepare each role so they can work together Federal Emergency Management Agency and compare what they learn. www.fema.gov

Did You Feel It? - Report It! 8. For the rest of the unit, each student earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/dyfi.php should be encouraged to learn as much as possible about how the role was influenced Earthquake Country Alliance: by the topic They should also learn how that www.earthquakecountry.info role contributed or hindered progress. Insurance Information Network of California Encourage students to use resources from www.iinc.org/ the library and the Internet to learn more. Students may create costumes to wear Landslide and Liquefaction Maps for Southern during role-playing. California gmw.consrv.ca.gov/shmp Be sure to include time for students to share Recent Earthquakes In Southern California information about items brought from home. www.data.scec.org/recenteqs.html

9. Conclude by having the student prepare San Diego State University Department of one of the following: Geological Sciences www.geology.sdsu.edu/ - Multimedia presentation Southern California Clickable Fault Map - Video that shows a point of view www.data.scec.org/faults/faultmap.html - A role-playing activity demonstration for other classes Southern California Earthquake Data Center - A debate between representatives www.data.scec.org/ from opposing sides. Southern California Earthquake Center

www.scec.org

Suggested Websites: Southern California Shake Maps www.cisn.org/shakemap/sc/shake/ American Red Cross www.redcross.org/ United States Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program: Automobile Club of Southern California earthquake.usgs.gov www.aaa-calif.com/

7Apr08 8 Credits:

©2008 Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC). Permission is granted to reproduce and use this lesson for educational purposes.

SCEC asks that proper credit be given. Credit can be provided by including a citation such as the following:

Credit: Southern California Earthquake Center, an NSF+USGS Center

Appendix:

State of California Science ECLA Alignment with State of Standards and Framework California Content Standards The ECLA video and Educator Resource Kit It is important to maintain the spirit of inquiry supports the content standards mandated for by focusing the teaching on questions that California public schools. can be answered by using observational data, the knowledge base of science, and The creators of this kit provide these processes of reasoning. (NSES - National materials as means to enhance curriculum, Research Council, 1996). instruction, and professional development.

Alignment with California Science Content Standards Alignment with Other Content Areas Grade 5: For information about alignment with other 6. a – i content areas please consult the State of

California Department of Education website. Grade 6: 1. a – g 2. d 3. a 4. c 7. a – h Math: www.cde.ca.gov/ci/ma/cf/ Grade 7: 4. a – g 7. a - e History-Social Studies: score.rims.k12.ca.us/sub_standards/cal_hist_ Grade 8: socsci_frame_stan.html 1. a – f 2. d,e,f 8. a – d 9. a – g

Source:

Science: www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/scmain.asp

Science Framework: www.cde.ca.gov/re/pn/fd/sci-frame-dwnld.asp

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