For me as for most teachers, transferring the excitement of a fabulous workshop to implementation in the classroom always presents challenges. After attending an exciting 16-hour workshop offered by Target Science North Central Science Explorations entitled "Earthquakes: Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On," I was anxious to implement what I had learned in my classroom. Also, there was the pedagogical need for me to teach it immediately while the lessons were still in my mind. The question was, how could I do this effectively, especially here in California where we live with earthquakes?

The school year was more than half over, and because I did not want a disjointed science curriculum it was necessary to meld earthquakes into the class theme of "energy." During the year we had studied several different forms of energy such as chemical, heat, light, mechanical, and motion; incorporating earthquakes into our theme presented no difficulty.

One strategy for implementation was through learning by discovery. How could the students themselves discover the causes of earthquakes and/or measure the results of earthquakes? What prior knowledge was needed by them to form hypotheses?

That was when another workshop I had attended on Biospheres came to fit neatly with earthquakes. Students made a time line of the earth and answered probing questions regarding their observations of the world map. And, as has always happened in the past, someone noted the similar shape of several continents.

This enabled us to continue onto a lesson on Pangaea. Instead of looking into the migratory patterns of animals and plants, as I have taught in years past, the third- and fourth-grade students were asked to write their theories as to what caused the continents to move. This offered a perfect segue to a discussion of what today's scientists believe caused the continents to move--the theory of plate tectonics. Thus, a relevant series of lessons on earthquakes was incorporated into a previous series on energy.

The workshop series provided a forum for teacher interaction from K-12. Thus, high school teachers were able to see how an elementary teacher would implement the unit in a classroom and vice versa. However, the most valuable articulation occurred when elementary, middle, and high school teachers made minor changes on an experiment to make it an appropriate hands-on lesson for each grade level.

In the classroom I was able to modify some activities that were designed for high school but that could also reinforce concepts being taught. For example, a plate tectonic model that high school students could make out of manila file folders could still be effective at the elementary level, if the pieces were enlarged and numbered. This was proved to be an excellent lesson for fourth-graders.

The chore involved in the set-up appears often to be the reason science is not taught in elementary school as often as the teacher or the students wish. I have resolved this problem by having my aide set up or students set up. The set-up is preserved year after year in baggies or paper bags that can then be handed to the new class for the hands-on lesson.