Earthquake, Volcanos and Tsunami's! Oh My!

Three Saints Church as it stands now in Old Harbor, AK.

So far this is the most exciting lesson to me.  I love teaching about the natural disasters.  As a former medic, I want my students to understand the importance of being prepared not afraid when disaster strikes.   Plus I live in a village that was virtually destroyed by the '64 Event.  This is juicy stuff.  I have been teaching Earth Science for years in California.  We spent a lot of time on Earthquakes.  Now that I am in Alaska, the relevance of earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes tie to every day life.  So this is a unit that hits home to me.  I am so thankful for our church that survived without a drop of water inside.  Without it's survival Old Harbor may not be here today.



Explain:
I learned about the controversy in Hawaii.  As a teacher, I see that desire to create better resources there to study.  But I also understand the peoples' desire to leave the land as a sacred place.  That balance between science and the land is delicate.  Coming to a common ground so both can be respected is the end goal.  Is it really possible?  I see similar debates here in Alaska with the oil in the North Slope.  How do we preserve yet still utilize the resources.  Can we?


Extend:
The resources in this module are invaluable to the Earth Science teacher.  I will use many of the resources like the interactive videos with my science students when as a tool to help students understand the need to go through "all these silly drills".  The visuals these resources create can help build understanding within the students.    I will use the cultural connections to help the students internalize how people around the globe are affects.  I can also see the possibility of using some of the Hawaii videos to help the students see the similarities and differences between our island cultures.

Google Earth is a wonderful tool to use to show the vast areas that are affected by such tragic events.  Using the ruler tool can also help students with scale projects and calculating distances between places.  For many of my students, it is just in the next bay or over hill.  So helping them use the tool to see actually how far apart things are.  It would be fun to see if the measurements they have in their head are accurate.  For example, I have heard people tell the local airline we have 2 miles of visibility.    So using Google Earth we could test that distance and see where the visibility lines are.

The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Center is a wonderful place to go to get recent statistics on tsunamis and earthquakes.  The USGS site offers up to date information on active volcanoes around the world.

Evaluate:
This module presents the science behind earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunami's.  The cultural connections found within this module bring me the most insight.  I have been teaching Earth Science for many years so the science was a review.  But the stories that tie the natural events to the people bring me understanding of the true impact of these events.  I appreciate that there are so many people that have decided to stay in their land even after disaster has struck.  Surviving A Tsunami - Lessons from Chili, Hawaii and Japan is another link that has stories from survivors.  You can listen to the stories of Alaskan survivors Hawaii Museum link.



3 Colleagues:
Matt's Blog offers a couple of additional resources to help students visualize the science behind Earthquakes.  He also explains the ties of the culture to the surrounding geography.

Sabrina's Blog  shares a nice story about how the islands are truly connected even if we are so far apart.

Alice's Blog brings the perspective of a new teacher to me. She discusses possibilities of bringing the science into her reading classes.  I like her reflection on how a small village would be effected by a natural disaster.