Some students at the Bethel High School have decided to tackle Oklahoma’s earthquake problem. Based on their success in another area, the STEM club members have decided to incorporate science, technology, engineering and math in making a difference by increasing awareness of earthquakes safety practices within schools.
Meeting after school, the students analyzed earthquake studies and created a free printable earthquake safety brochure for schools, available on its student-created website. They call themselves, “The Earth Shakers’ and produced a short video illustrating correct earthquake drill procedures and also presented safety lessons to children at Bethel’s middle schools.
“We are hoping more schools will start doing earthquake drills just as much as they do fire and tornado drills because there’s much more of a chance of earthquakes happening during school than a fire or a tornado,” said Alicia Mathis, one of the students.
The group’s involvement in safety procedures even attracted the attention of Michael Teague, Oklahoma Secretary of Energy and Environment. He visited the school last month to talk to students about their Earth Shaking Project.
The students also entered their homemade earthquake resources in the second part of the national Lexus Eco Challenge competition which calls for students nationwide to address air and climate issues. In the fall of last year, eight other students in the STEM Club, the Noteable Recyclists, submitted an action plan for the first part of the Eco Challenge which addressed land and water conservation. They won one of the contest’s biggest prizes—-$10,000. Bethel lost its recycling program last year when its recycling provider started charging for services. With no money in the school budget to continue the program, the students sought ways to recycle internally and it led them to develop a method to create notepads from discarded copy paper.
