The second in a series of science teaching eBooks was published today on the Art of Teaching Science Website.  Entitled Extreme Earth, this eBook explores questions such as:

Are the extremes of weather related phenomena such as flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes, drought and fires, as well as major and great earthquakes in heavily populated areas the new norm, or are these events part of nature’s cycles?

Based on blog posts on climate change, global warming, hurricanes, earthquakes, and volcanoes, Extreme Earth highlights the importance of the geosciences in science teaching.

The topics that are explored to our students in that they all relate to students’ lived experiences.  Helping students understand the nature of the Earth’s extreme weather around the planet is important to their science education, and to their life as citizens.  Not knowing the basis for these extremes puts our students and their families at risk.  Recent research in the geosciences suggests that these extremes in the weather—hot summers, drought, wildfires, flooding, hurricanes, extreme tornadoes—may be the norm, at least for a while.

Over the past decade, earthquakes and volcanoes have caused havoc for many nations.  The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami was caused by a great undersea earthquake measuring 9.1 on the Richter Scale.  The resulting tsunami killed more than 230,000 people.  The 2010 7.0 Haiti earthquake, the 8.8 Chile earthquake, and great Japan 8.9 earthquake and tsunami devastated these regions of the world.  The tsunami in Northern Japan caused meltdowns to three nuclear power plants on Fukushima Prefecture.  Why did the powerful earthquakes and tsunami’s occur in these locations?  Could these earthquakes have been predicted?  We explore these and other questions to help students understand the nature of plate tectonics theory, and an understanding the dynamic nature of the earth, especially along the edges of tectonic plates.  Although not all earthquakes occur at the boundaries of tectonic plates (recall the Virginia earthquake of August 2011), the theory of plate tectonics is a unifying geological theory, and important in understanding geological phenomena.

Extreme Earth explores these ideas.