This January, my students visited the Hall of Planet Earth at the American Museum of Natural History to learn from the exhibits on geologic time, the rock cycle, volcanoes, earthquakes, continental drift and convection currents. Coincidentally, Haiti experienced a catastrophic earthquake that same week. The museum experience connects nicely to the NYC seventh grade science geology unit curriculum, but this visit was unlike any other year. Seismology was suddenly a hot topic.
Students stood quietly in front of the earthquake monitoring station and watched real time seismic data on the screen. Red dots indicate earthquakes happening that day, and yellow rings showed the earthquake's magnitude- a huge yellow ring surrounded Haiti. Students were quick to share about what we learned in class about the tectonic plate boundaries and the convection currents in the mantle causing movement in the crust above.
A part of me was smiling inside because my students understood the science behind the earthquake. But the rest of me felt the magnitude of loss- millions dead, buidling destroyed, people desparate for medicine and food, orphaned children- and I knew it was important to talk to my students about how they felt about the Haiti earthquake and how we can help the survivors.
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