It’s a Landslide!

This week, students learned about concepts used in the Seismologist career! Girls applied these skills to the problem of a landslide in a small town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In small groups, girls used baking pans and paper ramps to set up their landslide simulators. Small toy houses and a paper bridge were used to model a town located at the bottom of a hill. Sand was poured at the top of the “mountain” to represent loose sediments. Lastly, students took turns shaking their baking pans to simulate an earthquake!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Girls used a modified scale, similar to the Richter scale, to shake their baking pans harder and simulate a stronger earthquake. After 5 trials of stronger and stronger quakes, students compared the resulting landslides in their journals. Larger sediments, like gravel and pebbles, were added to the sand. Students tested the effects of earthquakes with these materials and brainstormed solutions to the problem of property damage after landslides.