Waves play a role in tsunami action.
Science projects are a fun way to learn how the world around us contributes to phenomena that occur, such as earthquakes and continental crust buildup. Students can take part in these creative activities and come away with a better understanding about science and our world while enjoying the learning process as they do.
Liquefaction Enaction
Gather an eight- to 12-inch pie aluminum tin, a clear plastic cup, fine sand, a beaker, 125ml of water and a 1-oz sinker.
Cut the bottom off the plastic cup. Place cup with wider opening upwards. Press bottom of cup to bottom of pie tin. Fill cup with sand, leaving 12 cm from top empty, and be careful not to get any sand in the pie tin. Refrain from compacting sand. Add sinker to the top of the sand pile. Hold the cup firmly while pouring 125 ml of water into the pie tin only. Time the water's movement as it rises from the bottom of the cup to the top, through the sand; keep holding the cup firmly. Tap the side of the cup strongly while still holding it firmly. The sinker should slowly sink into moist sand as building foundations would during liquefaction, due to an earthquake occurrence in such permeable soil.
Oceanic Plate Shift
Ask students to watch each other complete this project for a better understanding of oceanic plate shift and how it impacts the building up of continents through a process known as accretion. Use Oreo cookies for this science project, which should make for some happy students.
Separate an Oreo cookie. Place the filling portion of the cookie upwards and at the entrance to the upper mouth. Upper teeth should scrape the filling as it goes into student's mouth. The buildup of cookie filling this way mimics the buildup of sediment from the ocean's floor when the continental crust slices over it, collecting sediment through the action and adding to the continental crust.
Making a Seismograph
Create a seismograph using an old motorized golf cart to transport each student over a pothole area on the school yard grounds--or have students walk over it--as each attempts to hold a piece of lined paper in front of him and draw a line from left to right on it with a felt tip pen. This science project will show the ups and downs on the graph that occur due to the student's movement, much like the impact shown on scientific seismographs during an earthquake. Explain that scientists calculate seismograph movement in order to determine the magnitude of the earth's plate movement.
Tsunami
Use an existing water trough with side ends angled at an outward and upward slope. Color the water blue. Place plastic beneath the display. Add a mound of dirt with a toy house perched atop on one end of display. Dump a large amount of dirt (like a landslide would) into the side of the trough opposite the toy house. Water should slosh up on the hill of dirt and onto the house.
Tags: continental crust, better understanding, holding firmly, science project, that occur