The Quake Trackers project

Quake Trackers is an educational programme designed to promote science education and earthquake hazard awareness in New Zealand by providing hands-on science activities for secondary school students

The programme was initated using hardware, software and classroom resources that were developed in the USA for schools and home hobbyists (kindly provided by the Princeton Earth Physics Project and the Public Seismic Network . Using these components, the Quake Trackers project has developed a seismograph for NZ schools and with the help of teachers thoughout NZ, is continually creating new resources for students and teachers.

Quake Trackers is a joint project of the Institute of Geophysics at Victoria University of Wellington and the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Science. The NZ Earthquake Commission is the primary sponsor of the project. The project has also been supported by the Government of New Zealand through the Science and Technology Promotion Fund.

Schools
So far the following schools have their own seismographs

• Freyberg High School, Palmerston North

• Hawera High School, Hawera

• Heretaunga College, Upper Hutt

• Kuranui College, Greytown

• Lytton High School, Gisborne

• Mount Aspiring College, Wanaka

• Newlands College, Wellington

• Oxford Area School, North Canterbury

• Sacred Heart College, Lower Hutt

• St Mary's College, Thorndon, Wellington

• St Patrick's College, Kilbirnie

• St. Peter's School, Cambridge

• Victoria University, Wellington

• Waimea College, Nelson

• Wainuiomata College, Wainuiomata

These schools and the other QuakeTrackers' stations are shown here where you can view information on each station

Crest Project

Katie Shore from St Mary's College has completed a Crest project on building a simple seismograph. You can see the web page she designed here.

Interested in becoming a QuakeTracker?

For schools without a seismograph - you may download seismograms, photos, curriculum activities and anything else we offer for free!

For schools that want a seismograph - you can do all the above, and for the price of a seismograph you can help the national network of schools to collect data!

Contact us for the most up-to-date information.

Life after Quake Trackers

Interested in continuing to study earthquakes at University? Then check out the Geophysics Major at Victoria University.


Links to other good sites


The Quake Tracker Development team

John Taber, VUW, joint project leader
Mike Kozuch, GNS, joint project leader

Anne Forsyth, Sacred Heart College, science teacher
Tim Harper, Mt Aspiring College, earthquake location program
Tony Haver, VUW, hardware design and installation
Jeff Lyall, GNS, website design
Iain Matcham, seismogram database
Raymond Neal, St Patricks College, curriculum development
Anna Nicholls, St Mary's College, science teacher
Trent Payne, seismogram database
Michelle Robertson, hardware design and installation, education and outreach
Eddi Serkowitsch, VUW, Historic earthquakes web page

Special thanks to:
Larry Cochrane, Public Seismic Network hardware and software design
Dave Nelson, NZ Public Seismic Network..

updated on 16/05/03