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Activity Content Sections
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- Medium-sized cardboard box
- Paper or plastic cup
- String
- Marker
- Scissors
- Paper, or a very long printed receipt from a store
- Tape
- Coins, marbles, small rocks, or other small, heavy objects to use as weights
- Another person to help
- How to Make a Seismograph video (2m; English and Spanish versions)
- Build Your Own Seismograph Student Build Instructions
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Instructions
- Familiarize students with how seismographs work and let them know that they will use everyday materials to build their own seismographs. Organize students into groups and distribute a copy of the Build Your Own Seismograph Instructions student handout to each group.
- Review the building instructions. If you want to build on the written instructions, play the brief How to Make a Seismograph video (2m) that illustrates the building process.
- Inform students that the seismographs they will be building represent the historical design of the very first instruments. Walk around the room as group’s build their devices and help any groups that might need assistance.
- Once the seismographs have been built and tested, bring students together to share results. Can students tell how hard the box was shaking based on the line? Can they tell when the box was not shaking at all?
- To conclude the activity, discuss the differences between the original and present-day design of the instrument:
Organize students into groups and distribute a copy of the -
- Traditional machines (seismographs): Original designs for measuring tectonic movement worked mechanically: A heavy weight with a writing instrument at one end hung from a rigid frame connected to the ground; this frame remained steadfast while the surface on which the paper sat moved in concert with Earth’s plate movements.
- Present-day instruments (seismometers): Most modern earthquake monitors record the movement of the Earth digitally, or output the data as a seismogram, the name for a printed version of the wavelengths created by a tremor. Today’s instruments are so sensitive that the wavelengths they record are so small that they need to be amplified for study. These machines are known as seismometers.
digitally, or output the data as a seismogram, the name for a printed version of the wavelengths created by a tremor. Today’s instruments are so sensitive that the wavelengths they record are so small that they need to be amplified for study. These machines are known as
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