SCEC INSTANeT News
	Seismic Sleuths: SCEC Outreach Announces New Video and Curriculum Revision Progress Report

By Jill Andrews and Robert de Groot SCEC Outreach announces the release of a new educational video designed to augment the Seismic Sleuths curriculum and scheduled to appear in the spring season, 2001, on Discovery Channel's Assignment Discovery. Because of generous support from the California Earthquake Authority and the Institute for Business and Home Safety, this new video was produced by Summer Productions, a professional educational film company with clients such as Discovery Networks' educational service (Assignment Discovery, TLC Elementary School, The Learning Channel), and Discovery Health Channel. The video can be used by teachers as an excellent advance organizer, or viewed by interested citizens who want to learn more about earthquakes, the destruction they can cause, the scientists and engineers who study them, and what they can do to prepare. The video is now scheduled to appear on television in the Spring season, 2001, on Discovery Channel's Assignment Discovery. This educational television show is available on cable television to more than 76,000 schools. Assignment Discovery is used by more than 200,000 teachers in high school and middle school classrooms across the country. Background Seismic Sleuths, a teacher's earth sciences curriculum package for grades 7-12, was produced in 1995 by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) with financial support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). In early 1999, the National Science Foundation (NSF) provided seed funding to the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) to update the Seismic Sleuths materials. SCEC'S education program includes creation and publication of educational materials for K-12 students and teachers, and we were more than pleased to take on the project. SCEC's Outreach Director, Jill Andrews, allocated the NSF seed funding to support Robert de Groot, a University of Southern California Ph.D. candidate in Science Education with an emphasis on Earth sciences. De Groot's two-year effort began in June 1999. He has been working with a cadre of experts to update the materials: scientists and educators at SCEC, AGU, FEMA, and others who created the original curriculum. The materials are in the draft writing stage: de Groot, with the aid of SCEC Summer Intern Kathryn Van Roosendaal, plans to complete the first draft by summer's end, 2000. They will feature the project on a poster to be presented at the SCEC Annual Meeting, September 17-20, 2000. Much of this summer has been devoted to the revision and redesign of several activities in the curriculum. All of the activities, however, will be retained in some form, with several placed in an "Additional Activities Section" at the end of the curriculum. The revision includes alignment with the National Science Education Standards, with changes or updates made where necessary. Resources found at the end of each unit have been updated and in many cases, new items have been added. Each unit will be streamlined and can stand alone in order to be used in a variety of environments. The Video Dr. Frank Ireton of AGU originally suggested an idea for a companion video to the curriculum. In early 1999, Ireton introduced Andrews to Ms. Helen Holt of Summer Productions, an educational film producer. During their first meeting, they conceived the idea that a pilot video (30 minutes to an hour in length) could also possibly be developed into a multi-episode series and might be of interest to educational television. FEMA's Elizabeth Lemersal, coordinator for the National Earthquake Program (NEP) and FEMA's projects liaison to SCEC, and Bonnie Butler, Branch Chief, FEMA Mitigation, offered FEMA' services to facilitate incorporation of the product into the "Train the Trainer" program at FEMA's Emergency Management Institute. Dawn Warehime (FEMA's Preparedness Training and Education Division, Mitigation Branch) offered to work as a partner in distribution of the materials through their training programs. Because the Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) had assumed the role of a distributor of the original materials, Andrews contacted Harvey Ryland, CEO, and Dr. Jim Russell, Vice President for Outreach. They indicated strong interest in the project, especially in the idea for a video. They suggested Andrews invite representatives of the California Earthquake Authority (CEA) to join the project, since they too had been interested in partnering with others to produce videos and/or other public awareness education materials. Bob de Groot agreed to serve as the project's curriculum consultant. Over the course of the next few months, IBHS, CEA and SCEC agreed to fund the pilot video. IBHS and CEA generously donated $25,000 and $105,000 respectively, and SCEC provided $20,000 from its Outreach budget Production of the video began in Winter 1999 and concluded in April 2000. An ad hoc advisory group was formed to oversee scientific and technical content. The group was made up of people whose organizations had donated funds, plus AGU's Frank Ireton, FEMA's Elizabeth Lemersal, and CUREe's Bob Reitherman. The final, edited version of the Seismic Sleuths video, is now scheduled to appear on television in the Spring season, 2001, on Discovery Channel's Assignment Discovery. This educational television show is available on cable television to more than 76,000 schools. Assignment Discovery is used by more than 200,000 teachers in high school and middle school classrooms across the country. How the Video Augments Seismic Sleuths Curriculum The video serves as a supplement to the curriculum by providing those aspects that the printed word cannot convey. This is not merely a human interest video with some science thrown in -- the viewer is very interested in the human experience from the standpoint of victims of the destruction caused, and also students and researchers in the Earth sciences. The drama and passion serve to keep viewers' attention. Students may watch the pilot even before starting the curriculum as an advance organizer and to help them think about and become personally involved with the issues -- and, it will give them a reason to study the material. The video is an overview of the entire curriculum and serves as sample for all of the units. Unit 1 is explored by having people from all aspects of society (real people with real concerns) comment on the earthquake experience. Conditions in other countries are explored (like in Turkey) and how the USGS responded to the disaster. A generous amount of time is devoted to emergency response without turning the program into a disaster film. Ned Field, a USC Research Professor at the time of the filming and now a US Geological Survey scientist, discusses Unit 3 and its focus on waves. The issue of slip rate (Wallace Creek, San Andreas fault) is well presented by Kerry Sieh of Caltech. While the video does not specifically discuss how the epicenter of an earthquake is determined, the essential elements for an episode on these issues are very much in place. The Parkfield experiment (California) featured in the video is a wonderful way to discuss Unit 5 and contains material on earthquake prediction and forecasting. The New Madrid earthquakes are featured in the film and in the curriculum. And Peter Yanev (EQE International CEO and structural engineer) spends time discussing problems related to soft-story nonductile concrete and wood frame structures. Unit 5 (pp. 299 - 310) has activities to support this issue. The scientists featured in the film discuss aspects of science that the curriculum really needs to have enhanced. For example, Field and Sieh do an excellent job of emphasizing that the science behind earthquakes has its limits. They provide a colloquial description of what earthquake scientists must do to advance understanding and solve problems. Most of all, Earth science is portrayed as an endeavor for everyone -- calling all to participate as "seismic sleuths." This, we think, is the best form of empowerment.

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