IBI series winner. Engaging students in earthquakes via real-time data and decisions.

29 JUNE 2012 VOL 336 SCIENCE www.sciencemag.org T he topic of earthquakes appears in virtually all introductory undergraduate geoscience courses. Most students entering these courses already have some knowledge of earthquakes and why they occur, but that knowledge often derives from the most recent event in the news and can therefore be biased toward the most destructive earthquakes (1). In addition, students arrive at college with misconceptions (2, 3), perhaps picked up from erroneous or poorly presented media coverage. These misconceptions can go unchecked or even be reinforced by introductory textbooks, most of which contain errors and oversimplifi cations about earthquake processes (3, 4). But we need not rely on the news media and textbooks in teaching. Earthquakes happen every day, and an exciting thing about earthquake science is near-instantaneous access to data collected by a global network of seismometers. The U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Earthquake Hazards Program hosts a Web site that serves data from that network in real time (http://earthquake.usgs. gov). Anyone can access and explore the data, which are available in both raw and interpreted form with supporting information. During 9 years of teaching introductory geoscience courses, I developed and refi ned an inquiry-based module called “Seismicity and Relative Risk” to take advantage of this reliable resource to engage students in learning more about earthquakes. The refining part was instructive. Initially, I asked students to explore a static map of earthquakes (such as shown in the map) and then to write an essay that related earthquakes to plate boundaries. The results were disappointing. Students did not know how to describe patterns in the distribution of earthquakes or even seem to understand what “relate earthquakes to plate boundaries” meant. I realized that I was not giving them all of the tools they needed. Recent research shows that students often do not recognize that these static maps consist of data collected and analyzed by scientists; instead, they see them simply as “pictures” (5). In addition, about half of the students in introductory geoscience courses are not prepared for the level of abstract thinking that this assignment required (6). There are many learning benefi ts to be gained from incorporating data into classroom teaching (7); I needed my students to get their hands on these data so that they would become real for them. Over the next few years, I tried different ways of incorporating data from the USGS site in class. In one version, pairs of students examined different regions and presented what they found in a few slides. This helped with describing patterns, but was tedious and repetitive for both me and the students, and it never got them beyond their descriptions. In the next version, students answered a series of questions that guided them through the USGS site. This was better, but students worked at very different paces; it was hard to Engaging Students in Earthquakes via Real-Time Data and Decisions IBI* SERIES WINNER