Here are several good links I hope they help Tibi Marin NASA Dryden AESP http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~braile/edumod/waves/WaveDemo.htm http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learning/topics/?topicID=63 http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/PlaneSeismicWaves/ http://geon.unavco.org/unavco/IDV_for_GEON_focal.html and if anyone is interested in coming to CA and study close and personal the San Andreas Fault please let me know I live closer to it, I also can take pictures and send them to you. ________________________________ From: Emma Farmer <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Wednesday, February 4, 2009 12:55:30 PM Subject: focal mechanisms Hello GEOED listers: Thanks Julie, that looks like a great resource for my field methods class! I think this is a good list to send the following question which I am mulling over these days, if not I apologize... I am looking for some kind of computer animation that explains focal mechanisms ("beach ball diagrams") for earthquakes. I do lots of hand-waving when I am teaching how they work, and I think the students would get it lots quicker if there were some kind of movie that showed how the compression and extension are generated by the first motions of the quake, and how that relates to the diagram. If such an animation does not exist, which I suspect, I am poised to create it! Our computer services department thinks they can make something in Flash, but I hate to reinvent the wheel... so far the only online explanations of focal mechanisms that I have found are static diagrams: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learning/glossary.php?termID=71 http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/beachball.html http://serc.carleton.edu/files/NAGTWorkshops/structure04/Focal_mechanism_primer.pdf http://www.seismo.unr.edu/htdocs/WGB/Recent/explanation/ I am also thinking of doing some kind of before and after study of how students do on similar exam questions with just my lecturing and the static drawings compared to the introduction of some kind of animation... any advice, links, or ideas would be welcome! Thanks very much (and apologies for cross-posting), --Christa ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ E. Christa Farmer, Ph.D. Hofstra University Geology Department 145 Gittleson Hall Hempstead, NY 11549 516-463-5566 [log in to unmask] >>> Julie Libarkin <[log in to unmask]> 02/04/09 10:33 AM >>> All: A couple of UK colleagues have a new guide to effective fieldwork that is grounded in the research on experiential learning. It is well-worth reading: Designing Effective Fieldwork for the Environmental and Natural Sciences John Maskall and Alison Stokes http://www.gees.ac.uk/pubs/guides/eesguides.htm#GEESfwGuide Take care Julie Julie Libarkin Assistant Professor, Director - Geocognition Research Lab Dept. of Geological Sciences & Division of Science and Math Education Michigan State University 206 Natural Science East Lansing, MI 48824 517-355-8369 "Today the human race is a single twig on the tree of life, a single species on a single planet. Our condition can thus only be described as extremely fragile, endangered by forces of nature currently beyond our control, our own mistakes, and other branches of the wildly blossoming tree itself. Looked at this way, we can then pose the question of the future of humanity on Earth, in the solar system, and in the galaxy from the standpoint of both evolutionary biology and human nature. The conclusion is straightforward: Our choice is to grow, branch, spread and develop, or stagnate and die." Robert Zubrin, Entering Space, 1999