Geography · Year 8

Active learning ideas

Earthquake Impacts and Vulnerability

Active learning helps students grasp the uneven effects of earthquakes by letting them test ideas with real materials and evidence. Hands-on tasks make abstract concepts like vulnerability and cascading effects concrete, which builds deeper understanding than passive reading or lectures.

• National Curriculum Attainment Targets
• KS3: Geography - Tectonic Hazards
• KS3: Geography - Geographical Skills

• 40–50 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 4 activities

Activity 01

• Case Study Analysis
• 50 min · Small Groups

Case Study Carousel: HIC vs LIC Impacts

Prepare stations with resources on two earthquakes, one HIC and one LIC. Small groups spend 10 minutes at each station noting primary/secondary impacts and vulnerability factors, then rotate and add comparisons. End with a class chart consolidating findings.

Compare the immediate and long-term impacts of an earthquake on a HIC versus a LIC.

Facilitation Tip

Set the shake table challenge on a stable surface and assign roles (builder, tester, recorder) to keep groups organized and focused on the task.

What to look for

Present students with two contrasting news reports about recent earthquakes, one from an HIC and one from an LIC. Ask: 'What specific differences do you observe in the reported primary and secondary impacts? Which factors, related to vulnerability, seem to explain these differences?'

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Decision-Making
• Self-Management

Activity 02

• Case Study Analysis
• 45 min · Pairs

Shake Table Challenge: Building Resilience

Provide materials like jelly, straws, and marshmallows for pairs to build and test model structures on a shaking table made from a tray and motor. Pairs record damage levels, discuss building codes, and redesign for improvement.

Assess how building codes and infrastructure quality influence earthquake damage.

What to look for

Provide students with a scenario: 'A magnitude 7.0 earthquake has just struck a densely populated city with older buildings and limited emergency services.' Ask them to list three immediate primary impacts, two secondary impacts, and one way infrastructure quality would worsen the situation.

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Decision-Making
• Self-Management

Activity 03

• Case Study Analysis
• 40 min · Whole Class

Vulnerability Mapping: City Scenarios

Give whole class base maps of a fictional city. Students mark zones by infrastructure quality and predict impacts from a hypothetical earthquake, then share and debate cascading effects on services in a class discussion.

Predict the cascading effects of a major earthquake on a city's essential services.

What to look for

Show images of earthquake-damaged areas. Ask students to identify whether the damage shown is primarily a result of ground shaking (primary) or a subsequent event like a fire or landslide (secondary). Follow up by asking how building materials might influence the observed damage.

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Decision-Making
• Self-Management

Activity 04

• Jigsaw
• 50 min · Small Groups

Jigsaw: Cascading Effects

Divide small groups into expert roles on services like power, water, and hospitals. Each expert researches earthquake effects on their service, then regroups to predict city-wide chains and present timelines.

Compare the immediate and long-term impacts of an earthquake on a HIC versus a LIC.

What to look for

Present students with two contrasting news reports about recent earthquakes, one from an HIC and one from an LIC. Ask: 'What specific differences do you observe in the reported primary and secondary impacts? Which factors, related to vulnerability, seem to explain these differences?'

• Understand
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Relationship Skills
• Self-Management

A few notes on teaching this unit

Teachers should balance demonstration with guided inquiry, using structured comparisons to challenge oversimplified ideas. Avoid presenting HICs and LICs as absolute opposites; instead, emphasize the spectrum of vulnerability factors and their local variations. Research shows that when students build and test models themselves, they retain concepts about resilience and secondary effects more effectively.

Students will confidently explain how earthquake impacts vary by context and connect primary damage to secondary consequences. They will use evidence from case studies and models to argue why some places face worse outcomes than others.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During the Shake Table Challenge, watch for students assuming all building designs fail the same way regardless of materials or structure.

  During the Shake Table Challenge, ask groups to vary one factor at a time (material, height, reinforcement) and record how each change affects collapse, linking observations to real-world building code differences.

• During the Case Study Carousel, watch for students generalizing that all LIC earthquakes cause total devastation while HICs always escape harm.

  During the Case Study Carousel, direct students to compare specific data points like death tolls, infrastructure damage, and recovery timelines, prompting them to identify exceptions and nuances in each case.

• During the Prediction Jigsaw, watch for students treating secondary effects as minor or unrelated to primary impacts.

  During the Prediction Jigsaw, have students physically rearrange cards to show direct links between primary damage and secondary outcomes, forcing them to visualize cascading effects step by step.

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Methods used in this brief

• Case Study Analysis
• Jigsaw