The 2022 Great ShakeOut Day is October 20! ShakeOut earthquake drills are an opportunity to practice how to be safer during earthquakes: Drop, Cover and Hold On. Students may not know where they will be when an earthquake occurs, but they can know how to protect themselves.
As you prepare for the Great ShakeOut Day, consider how to make earthquakes relevant to your students. Can you search for recent earthquakes in your region? Do you have access to earthquake data your students can analyze? One of our favorite resources at IRIS is the IRIS Earthquake Browser (IEB).
The IEB is a free web-based interactive map for exploring earthquake epicenters on a map of the world. To support a classroom earthquake drill, students can independently zoom in to their state or a region of interest and explore the current and historical earthquakes. Questions students could answer include: How close was the most recent earthquake? What is the region's largest historical earthquake? Where in the US are you most likely to need to Drop, Cover, and Hold On?
