Embedded Simulations as a Bridging Activity for Collective Inquiry in Earth Science

• In Event: Structured Poster Session: Understanding Future Learning Spaces Across Multiple Architectures

Abstract

Objective
Seismographs are amazing. From a single location, one can measure earthquakes and other seismic events from all other points on the Earth. By mapping earthquake locations over time, seismologists have been able to provide an evidentiary basis for testing theories of ocean and continent formation, the causes and effects of earthquakes and volcanoes, and other geologic processes.   This suggests the compelling prospect of allowing students to monitor the whole world for earthquakes - right from their classroom.  However, one seismograph is sufficient to locate an earthquake’s distance away, but not its direction. Three positionally distinct seismographs are needed to uniquely define the epicenter, using a mathematical process known as trilateration. Each seismograph serves as the center of a circle whose radius is the distance of the event from that seismograph; their common point of intersection determines the epicenter. Our study transforms a traditional classroom into a room-sized simulation of a seismically active geographical region, in order to engage students in authentic geoscience inquiry practices.

Theoretical Perspective
This work was guided by a pedagogical model of Knowledge Community and Inquiry (KCI: Slotta & Najafi, 2013), where students work as a community of learners, constructing a knowledge base that is refined and applied in the context of collaborative and collective inquiry activities.

Method
Our design-based research project situates a unique room-based simulation called RoomQuake within a broader inquiry curriculum called Pulse of the Earth. Our goal is to engage students as a learning community, measuring and locating earthquakes, making connections to seismology topics through authentic inquiry, and gaining an appreciation of the nature of science. The Roomquake simulation (Moher, 2006), students imagine that their classroom is a seismically active geographical region, and that Ipads situated around the room are “seismographs” that detect and continuously display local “ground motion.” During quiescent periods, the seismographs display simulated background noise, but when a “roomquake” occurs, they display distinctive seismograms which students interpret to develop estimates of the event’s distance from the seismograph, its intensity, and time of occurrence. Then, each team collaborates with the other seismograph teams to trilaterate the epicenter.

Results
One of the key outcomes of this research was the design of the curriculum and physical-technical FLS environment. In RoomQuake, students successfully engaged in trilateration using simplified and controlled activities and representations. For several weeks, they explored patterns of roomquakes around fictitious “plate boundaries.” Afterward, they explored the historical earthquake data for a given geographical transect, estimating fault lines, and examining other geological features. Throughout that time, they monitored any quake that occurred using the classroom seismograph and two remote USGS seismographs to estimate its epicenter.  Students worked as a community to articulate and address “investigable questions” utilizing interactive environments like Google Earth and the USGS web site, working with historical earthquake data to develop evidence-based responses to their questions.

Significance
This study exemplifies of how the design of FLS and curriculum can transform traditional classrooms into embodied, interactive, and discipline-infused spaces that support students' engagement in authentic forms of scientific inquiry.

Authors

• James D. Slotta, Boston College

• Miriam Gates, Boston College

• Tom Moher, University of Illinois at Chicago