Computer Science

Engineering Earthquake-Resistant Buildings: Crowdsourced Disaster Data

Middle School Impacts of Computing In Classrooms

Students manipulate algorithms used to calculate an earthquake’s intensity based on crowdsourced survey data.

Module Overview

Students learn about the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Did You Feel It? (DYFI) survey and the algorithm that is applied to survey responses to calculate an earthquake’s intensity. They observe how the intensity calculation changes if they manipulate the algorithm. 

  • Teach this module after Engineering Earthquake-Resistant Buildings 
  • 2 lessons 
  • 45 minutes per lesson 
  • Student materials available in Spanish 
  • Computational tools used: MATLAB Live Scripts (free web-based application) 
  • View Technology Requirements (pdf) 

Module Resources

Module Map

Students learn how the United States Geological Survey (USGS) crowdsources data about earthquakes

Students learn more about the algorithm used by the DYFI survey to calculate earthquake intensity and how some survey responses carry more weight than others. Teams brainstorm questions they might include on a survey to crowdsource data about a disaster relevant to their local context.