NATURAL HAZARD DEMONSTRATIONS FOR TEACHING
Bruce D. Malamud
Hazards, Vulnerability & Risk Research Unit
Department of Geography
King’s College London, UK
e-mail: bruce.malamud@kcl.ac.uk
B. Tame
Tornado
A. Tornado Tube ‘Vortex’
Adding
glitter
to water
in 2 litre
soda
po p
bottle
Red
‘tornado
tube’
(hole in
middle).
II. Teaching Large Classes
Transverse Waves (S-waves)
Spring
(small
slinky)
H20
King’s College London
Students Luke McDougall &
Muhammed Ebrahimsa.
No water
escaping down
through hole in
tornado tube
due to air
pressure in
bottom bottle.
air
Sand
paper
Called ‘Tame
Tornado’ (House
of Twisters) in
the USA and
‘Toyway Tornado’
(Toyway Science)
in the UK.
Student slowly pulling cord + mass
+ spring + mass towards left
See Braile (2005) under
‘Earthquakes’ Part V for an extensive
teacher’s guide on using the slinky
to demonstrate seismic waves.
E. Mass Movement
III. Actively Involving Students?
‘Tornado Tube’
There are many techniques in large classes to more actively involve
students, so that teaching is not just ‘receiving of information’, including
(a) breaking up students into small group discussions during lectures,
(b) encouraging students to actively participate in class through
comments, questions and ‘show of hands’,
(c) group ‘role playing’ exercises,
(d) hands-on activities,
(e) class demonstrations.
This paper concentrates on the last two, specifically for natural hazards.
As a teaching tool, students often become much interested and more
excited about what they are learning if use is made of 5–10 minute
demonstrations, even if only peripherally related to the subject at hand.
D. Earthquake Stick-Slip
Compression Waves (P-waves)
There are many methods of teaching, but as university lecturers,
particularly for large class sizes, we find ourselves too often presenting
material to students by direct speaking, or some combination of blackboard,
whiteboard, slide projector, digital projector, and overheads.
IV. Class Demonstrations
Poster ED13C–1159
C. Earthquake Waves and Slinky
I. Summary
This paper presents several demonstrations for large classes that have been
developed or gathered from other sources in the general area of natural
hazards. These include weather (Figures A, B, F), earthquakes (Figures C,
D), mass movements (Figures E, G), tsunamis (Figure H), and volcanoes
(Figures I).
2005 AGU Session ED13C: Lecture Dem onstrations in Earth Science Curriculum
Gentle
circular
twist of
bottles
causes
vortex.
Amount of ‘Slip’
Tornado Tubes are
inexpensive and
available from many
science museum and
‘educational’ shops.
See Spangler (1995)
and other references
under ‘Weather’ Part V.
F. Air Pressure
Pour hot water in plastic
bottle and empty it out.
Dry sand in
bottle, 30-37°
angle of repose.
King’s College
London Student
Jennifer Holden
Add a little water, angle of
repose very high,
observation of sudden
‘landslides’ as bottle tilted.
There are many demonstrations for ‘weather’ phenomena
(storm surges, tornadoes, wind, air pressure in general,
etc.); see references under ‘Weather’ in Part V.
Immediately put
cap on bottle.
Heated air
cools,
pressure
changes and
bottle
collapses.
Resultant discussion with questions and comments by students keeps both
the students and the lecturer (in this case the author) motivated and
intrigued about the subjects being discussed.
Add more water. Sediment saturated (bottle
far left) and angle of repose very low; sediment
flows like a fluid. Sediment not saturated in
right of bottle; angle of repose still high.
G. Mass Movement
Water and coloured
sand in-between two
glass plates.
I. Volcanoes
‘Explosive Volcano’
from Volcano World (2005)
H. Tsunami Wave Tank
Photo and demonstration from UBC Earth
and Ocean Science Department (2002)
NASA (2005) Planetary Geology: A teacher’s guide with activities in the physical
and Earth sciences, 223 p. Available online at: www.jsc.nasa.gov/er/seh/
Planetary_Geology.pdf [Accessed 5 Nov 2005].
Allaby, M. (1999) How the Weather Works: Fascinating Projects & Experiments
that Reveal the Secrets of the Weather (Kindersley Limited, London) 192 p.
ABOUT (2005) Air Pressure Experiments [Online] Available at:
http://physics.about.com/od/airandfluidexp/ [Accessed 25 Nov 2005].
Ganeri, A. (2001) Stormy Weather, Horrible Geography Series (Scholastic Children’s Books, London), 160 p.
NCAR (2005) Office of Education and Outreach Atmospheric Science Explorers
and Teaching Earth and Atmospheric Science with the Kid’s Crossing Web
Site [Online] Available at: http://www.eo.ucar.edu/kids [Accessed 28 Nov
2005].
SPARC Museum Consortium (1996) The Illinois’ Wild Weather Teacher Manual
(Springfield Children’s Museum, Lakeview Museum of Arts & Science, Science
& Technology Interactive Center, Discovery Center Museum, The Science
Center), 136 p. [Also see Midwest Wild Weather Teacher Manual at:
Braile, L. (2005). Seismic Waves & the Slinky: A guide for teachers. [Online]. Available
from: www.eas.purdue.edu/~braile/edumod/slinky/slinky.doc [Accessed 30 Oct
2005].
Exploratorium (2005) Earthquake Experiments (liquefaction, seismic slinky,
highway seismograph) [Online] Available at:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/faultline/activities [Accessed 29 Oct 2005].
Stein, R. (2000) Earthquake Model [Online] Available at:
http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/research/deformation/modeling/eqmodel.html
[Accessed 25 Nov 2005].
Bold Inventions (2005) Tsunami Simulator Project [Online] Available at:
http://www.boldinventions.com/tsun_sim_2.html [Accessed 25 Nov 2005].
EHP Online (2005) Tsunami Simulation Experiment [Online] Available at:
http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/science-ed/2005/tsunami.pdf [Accessed 24 Nov
2005].
Mofjeld, H. (2004) How can we make a homemade simulation of a tsunami?
TsuInfo Alert, 6(6), 15. Available online at:
http://www.dnr.wa.gov/geology/tsuinfo/2004-06.pdf and
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tsunami/Faq/x011_homemade_tsunami
[Accessed 20 Nov 2005].
NASA Observatorium (2005) Tsunamis [Online] Available at:
http://observe.arc.nasa.gov/nasa/education/teach_guide/tsunami.html
[Accessed 25 Nov 2005].
UBC Earth and Ocean Science Department (2002) Wave Propagation Lab, E114,
Natural Disasters [Online] Available at: http://www.eos.ubc.ca/courses/
eosc114/EOSC114home/HandsOnWavePhotos/WaveLabImages.html
[Accessed 10 Nov 2005].
Barker, J (1996) Demonstrations of geophysical principles applicable to the properties and processes of the Earth‘s interior. [Online]. Available from:
www.geol.binghamton.edu/faculty/barker/demos.html [Accessed 25 Nov
2005].
Volcano World (2005) Volcano Models [Online] Available at:
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_models/models.html [Accessed
25 Oct 2005].
King’s College London
Student Matthew Blackett
These are not always
easy to make so that
they are ‘inexpensive’
& ‘portable’; several
demonstrations are
listed under ‘Tsunamis’
in Part V.
e. Weather
d. Volcanoes
‘Lava
Lamp’
Several natural hazards demonstrations are presented here, most
inexpensive, that have been used in front of large university classes and
smaller ‘break-out groups’, and which can also be adapted for secondaryschool students. Many other demonstrations exist (see V. Bibliography).
a. Asteroid Impacts
c. Tsunamis
[See About (2005) and
many other sources
for air pressure demos].
D ay s , w e e k s , a n d m o n t h s l a t e r, t h e s t u d e n t s re m e m b e r t h e s e
`demonstrations’, but to set these up takes time, effort, and resources of
equipment, although not necessarily a large amount of the latter.
V. Bibliography and References Cited
b. Earthquakes
Subaqueous
landslide
See Stein (2000)
under
‘Earthquakes’ in
Part V, for an indepth discussion
of an earthquake
demonstration
involving stickslip.
http://66.99.115.200/mww/].
Spangler, S. (1995) 50 Weird & Wacky Things you can do with a Tornado Tube
(Wren Publishing, Englewood, Co), 125 p. + tube.
Utah Center for Climate & Weather (2005) Great Weather Experiments [Online]
Available at: http://www.utahweather.org/great_wx_experiments.html [Accessed 1
Nov 2005].
f. Assorted
Arnold, N. (2001) Explosive Experiments, Horrible Science Series (Scholastic
Children’s Books, London), 192 p.
Brunelle, L. (2004) Pop Bottle Science: 79 amazing experiments & science
projects (Workman Publishing, New York), 120 p. + bottle.
GLOBE (2005) Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment
[Online] Available at: http://www.globe.gov [Accessed 25 Nov 2005].
Institute of Physics (2005) Physics Tricks and Physics to Go [Online] Available at:
http://www.einsteinyear.org/get_involved/physicstogoresources/physicstogop
df/ [Accessed 12 Nov 2005].
Kardos, T. (2003) Easy Science Demos & Labs for Earth Science (Walch
Publishing, Portland, ME), 129 p.
Klutz (2002) Disaster Science (Klutz, Palo Alto, CA), 80 p.
Merritts, D. Walter, R. & MacKay, B. (2005) Teaching with Interactive
Demonstrations [Online] Available at: http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/
demonstrations/index.html [Accessed 28 Nov 2005].
Stover, S. G. & Macdonald, R. H. (1993) On the Rocks: Earth Science Activities
for Grades 1-8 (Society for Sedimentary Geology). [volcanoes, mass movements]
Walker, J. (1977) The Flying Circus of Physics With Answers (John Wiley & Sons,
New York), 295 p.
VI. Do you have natural hazard demonstration
ideas and references? Please send them to me!
Photo and demonstration from Volcano World (2005)
See Barker (1996) and Volcano World
(2005) under ‘Volcanoes’ in Part V, for
many volcano demonstrations.
I am compiling a bibliography of resources on natural hazard demonstrations and
‘quick’ hands-on activities that can be used for university lectures, including web
pages, books, science museum literature, journal articles, ‘private’ ideas (which will
be properly acknowledged!), items to buy off the shelf, etc. I would be grateful if
you could send me any resources you know of, to bruce.malamud@kcl.ac.uk.
Acknowledgments:
Funding for materials used in and gathered for these demonstrations was from
the King’s College London Teaching Fellowship Fund. The following students have helped me build up a
bibliography of web sites and books on natural hazard demonstrations: Simon Hoggart, James Millington,
Alex Noake, Catherine Tomlinson.