Making the Most Out of Science Museum Field Trips

The NY Times Learning Network has an article and lesson plan about making a field trip to science museums, and even uses a trip to the Museum of Science in Boston as an example! There are suggestions for before and after activities as well as ideas for creating a sort of museum scavenger hunt for students. There is an accompanying article, The Thrill of Science, Tamed by Agendas.

Earthquake Information

USGS California-Nevada Real Time Earthquake page shows a map of recent quakes in California and Nevada - all 2000+ of them! Try clicking on United States to see the rest of the country - look how quiet New England is - or go to the World view. The M5+ list shows the location of all recent magnitude 5 and above earthquakes.

The Weston Observatory, run by Boston College gives real-time seismograph displays in New England. While this region is not known for its quakes, we do have them. There's a nice article, Why Does the Earth Quake in New England? It turns out that there are different evolving theories. " Unlike the situation for many plate boundary earthquakes, it is not at all clear whether faults mapped at the earth's surface in the Northeast are the same faults along which the earthquakes are occurring."