This CNNfyi.com lesson plan is supplemented with material from

Lesson plan: Aftershocks in El Salvador

January 19, 2001
Web posted at: 3:55 PM EST (2055 GMT)

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Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Explain how earthquakes occur and how they affect the Earth and people's lives.
• Develop a list of ways nations can support another country after an earthquake.

Standards

National Science Education Standards
Earth and space science, Content standard D, grades nine-12

High school students should know that interactions among the solid Earth, the oceans, the atmosphere and organisms have resulted in the ongoing evolution of the Earth system. We can observe some changes such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions on a human time scale.

Materials

CNNfyi.com, "Disease, despair and death grip El Salvador in quake aftermath"
Internet access
Riverdeep earthquake lab
World map

Suggested time

One class period

Procedures

1. Discuss with the class that earthquakes occur from the deformation of outer portions of tectonic plates, the Earth's outermost layer of crust and upper mantle. The heating and cooling of the rock below these plates cause the adjacent overlying plates to move. During an earthquake, energy is released in several forms as heat and as seismic waves radiate out from the "source" and cause the ground to shake, sometimes hundreds of kilometers away. If the accumulated stress exceeds the strength of the rocks making up these brittle zones, the rocks can break suddenly, releasing the stored energy as an earthquake.

2. Have students locate El Salvador on a world map.

3. Have students read the CNNfyi.com article "Disease, despair and death grip El Salvador in quake aftermath" and ask the following:

• Why is there a rampant spread of diseases in the earthquake's aftermath? Why are health officials concerned about a cholera outbreak? What are some ways that health officials are preventing the spread of diseases?
• What are some ways that authorities are trying to "lift the people's spirits?" Why do you think children have been frightened by tremors from aftershocks?
• How did the earthquake affect the coffee industry? What impact do you think the coffee industry's loss will have on El Salvador's economy?

4. Have students research what happens after earthquakes. Direct them to look specifically at the spread of disease and the costs to repair the city.

Assessment

Have a class discussion about the information that each student found. Develop a list of ways to help countries after an earthquake. Students may want to look at international aid sites, such as the Red Cross, to see if there is anything they can contribute as a class to help in the relief efforts.

Accommodation

International language: Students whose native language is Spanish (or who are studying Spanish) can go to the El Salvador National Emergency Committee on the quake aftermath and summarize the information in English and/or Spanish. Additionally, a CNN en.Espaņol.com article offers reports on previous earthquakes in Latin America that students can use and summarize for non-Spanish-speaking classmates.

Challenge

Students can research earthquakes using Riverdeep's earthquake lab and share their research with the class.

InterAction
U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center
Richter scale
Central America earthquake map
El Diario de Hoy de El Salvador (Spanish newspaper)
Identidad de algunas victimas
All about earthquakes
Federal Emergency Management Agency

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