Wednesday

We built buildings today to see what types of structures could withstand an earthquake. The buildings were made of three different types of material and then we shook the desks to see which stayed together the best. The shaking started small and then increased.

We discussed P and S waves. We learned why scientists think the earth has different layers, it has to do with P and S waves. We also watched a clip of a Bill Nye video on earthquake waves and also a short youtube video on earthquake waves. Students learned about the Mercalli and Richter scale for measuring earthquakes. The Mercalli scale measures earthquake damage while the Richter scale measures the magnitude of the quake. This is interesting information and the students are really enjoying themselves.