Students can compare the modern Richter scale to the Mercalli scale, an earlier method for categorizing the intensity of earthquakes based on observed damage to human structures. Students make booklets with drawings representing the ratings on both scales, and discuss their differences and uses in helping communities deal with earthquakes.
Students can access the Internet to track earthquake activity worldwide in real time, using maps to identify fault lines and reading about news related to earthquakes. Working in groups, students create multimedia projects showing earthquake activity, measurements and ways communities cope with the effects of an earthquake.
Students can see firsthand how earthquake monitoring works by creating a classroom seismograph. Using materials such as a soda bottle filled with water, a felt tip pen and some paper, students can work in groups to tape the felt tip pen to the soda bottle and suspend it over the paper between two stacks of books on a table. When someone shakes the table in an "earthquake," the felt-tip pen moves on the paper, tracking the vibrations.
Students can learn about the Richter scale and other aspects of seismology by working in groups to create a plan to prepare a city for a major earthquake. This activity includes researching earthquake preparedness, types of earthquakes, and ways to measure them, and also incorporates oral and writing skills, as students synthesize and report their findings.