A post from Larry Ferlazzo on The Best Sites to Learn about the Earthquake in Italy got me thinking about resources to provide students with background on earthquakes in general – and a handout CSUSM Professor Kathy Hayden recently gave me (during the Robert Marzano session at CUE):

• IRIS Seismic Monitor – Students will love the zoom capabilities of this site as they develop an understanding of the patterns formed by recent earthquakes. Site includes news link to additional info on quakes.
• Flash-based Epicenter Locating Tools – Thanks to Cal State Uni, San Marcos, middle school teachers have a ready-made set of lessons to help students understand how scientists actually gather data on earthquakes.
• U.S. Geologic Survey: Volcanoes Hazards Program – You can’t study about earthquakes without studying about volcanoes.  Checkout current volcanic activity from around the world. Site even has real-time images of recent U.S. volcanoes via webcams.
• Physical Geography Animations – Houghton Mifflin modules + University of Kentucky Geology Dept = outstanding resource! Checkout plate tectonics interactive map!

To the above resources, I’d like to add a tip and link for promoting active listening to science videos (or any video that has students sitting for more than five minutes): Today’s Meeting – a tool that can be used for  incorporating interactive backchanneling into movie watching. (What is backchanneling, you ask?) I discovered Today’s Meeting via a Tweet from Jackie Gerstein, which led to a  post by Chris Webb explaining innovative use of  the tool by middle school history teacher Pat Gerding.

Once again, I stand back in awe of the power of Web 2.0 and its ability to build PLNs not possible only a few years back.