They shook the town...then painted it red.

My students created seismographs this week. The objective was that they had to use items they found around the house to create a machine that would record seismic motion (or just motion in general, given that we don't always have seismic motion we feel).

**This one measured motion in a little different way. The marbles on the top would fall into the water when seismic activity occurred.
**This one was made from wood, and had a pendulum that swung due to seismic activity, recording on the paper below.
**This one was made from a cereal box and yogurt cup. It was "painted chrome" as described by the inventor. Paper moved through the slot at the bottom, recording motion from the swinging pendulum.
**This one was built at a slant, and held marbles inside. When seismic activity occurred, the marbles would fall out. In the event of a minor earthquake, only one or two would come out. A larger earthquake would cause more marbles to fall out.

**This one was built from wood scraps and hardware from the garage. It held a drum of paper on a roller, which moved and recorded seismic activity.
And this one....this is unbelievable!! This kid went all out. It was totally functional! Not to mention sooooo cool. As you can see, when he turned the paper roll, the machine moved and recorded all motion on the paper.


I was proud of these little bits today. They rocked!