Los terremotos como recurso didáctico en Educación Primaria

Abstract

It is undeniable that in Spain geology has lost a lot of specific weight in the curricular designs of all pre-university educa- tional levels. It does not seem that this situation will change in the short and medium term, so it is necessary to design new strategies to help alleviate this serious problem (González et al., 2011). Our proposal, designed for 9 to 12 year-old students, uses geology as a didactic resource connected to the Spanish core standards (BOE, 2014) for Mathematics, Social Sciences and Natural Sciences, following the spirit of STEM-STEM methodologies. In particular, this work connects Mathematics and Geology through an activity consisting in the epicentre location of an earthquake occurred at Las Cañadas del Teide, Tenerife, using the difference in the arrival time of P and S waves at 3 seismic stations. The necessary material consists in: three seismograms on paper obtained at three seismic stations in Tenerife, a map of Tenerife, pencil, rubber, compass and a ruler. The calculation of the arrival times of P and S waves will allow us to work with decimal numbers and the interpretation of graphs (dependent and independent variables); the use of maps and the compass will allow us to work with scales and changes of units and the drawing of geometric figures (circles), as well as the concept of triangulation.