Hear That Rumble? Science Quake is Back!

Science Quake is back! Schools have battled it out for the Science Quake of the Year Award. Image: Ulladulla High School, AuScope edited

The ‘Science Quake of the Year’ competition encourages school kids to explore and pursue the wonders of Earth science. The competition launched in 2023 with over 1700 participants. This year, AuSIS engaged several new schools across metropolitan and regional Australia to have fun, get creative and see who would take home the trophy of Best Footquake in Australia!

Engaging Australia’s Future Geologists

Seismology is a crucial research area in earth science due to its importance in hazard warnings, infrastructure safety, and risk reduction. To help bridge awareness, Australian Seismometers in School (AuSIS) was developed, engaging over 50 schools across Australia in metro and regional-based towns and cities.

Catch Ulladulla High School video highlighting the involvement of students and staff. Source: Ulladulla High School

As part of this year’s quake, AuSIS aimed to engage Australia’s future seismologists to nurture a deeper understanding of Earth’s invisible processes. By using their school based seismometers, AuSIS tasked school kids and staff members to rally together to create the best footquake on this side of the hemisphere! These recordings are not only used as a hands-on experience; the data collected by the seismometers are collated via AusPASS for researchers to examine.

How to Judge a Science Quake

Judging criteria involves reviewing some critical details on the jump ranging from:

Synchronisation of the jump
Size of the signal per person
Length of the signal
Photos of participation
Community involvement (number of staff and school kids involved)
And most important of all, creativity!

This year’s ‘Overall Winner’ went to Ulladulla High School in New South Wales. This jump stood out as it involved 694 students, including 12 international students who were visiting from Korea at the time. They even produced a short limerick for the event

“A task for National Science Week,
Our own earthquake, not for the meek,
So the students came out in force,
This is Ulladulla High School, of course,
Oh what fun for the Science geeks.

We gathered together to make the ground shake,
But to show this thing was no fake?
To provide us some evidence,
What could be more relevant,
A Seismograph proved it's a quake.”

Ulladulla High School registered 3 synchronised jumps with the closest student being 1.2m away, and the furthest being 36m away. Image: Ulladulla High School

Taking out the honours for the ‘Best Whole School Jump’, Broome Senior High School got the whole school involved during their athletics carnival with 310 students jumping for gold!

310 students jumping in sync from Broome Senior High School. Image: Broome Senior High School

Marian Catholic College in Griffith, NSW, won the award for ‘Creating Quakes with Music and Movement’. With four classes of students, the school practised three jumps — the first to the quintessential track ‘We Will Rock You’, followed by a timed jump and feet stamping for 30 seconds.

Marian Catholic College delivered three jumps; the first to the song ‘We Will Rock You’, followed by a synchronised jump and foot stamping for 30 seconds. Image: Marian Catholic College

Rosebud Secondary College took home the ‘Sharpest Jump’ award, with 164 students from years 7 - 10 spreading out to deliver a punchy signal.

Rosebud Secondary College delivered this year’s ‘Sharpest Jump’. Image: Rosebud Secondary College

Snowy Mountains Gramer School in NSW won the ‘Best Class Initiative’, in which approximately 30 Year 7 students participated with a host of class teachers. They also shared their jump footage, with one teacher coaching the team to leap high in this energetic footquake!

Snowy Mountains Grammar School delivered this year’s ‘Best Class Initiative’ - watch their attempt here. Image: Snowy Mountains Grammar School

And finally in sunny Queensland, three Lab Technicians from Beerwah State High School (nicknamed “The Three Tremors”) unleashed their creative side by providing a beautiful thematic representation of the Glasshouse Mountains, netting them the award for ‘Best Thematic Representation’.

With careful footwork, Beerwah State High School created a beautiful signal mimicking the Glasshouse Mountains nearby. The Three lab techs figured out how to manipulate their movements toward and away from the seismometers to recreate the silhouette. Image: Beerwah State High School

Where to Next?

Our team would like to thank the Earth Science Faculty at ANU for their continued work in engaging Australia’s next geoscientists.

If your school is interested in learning more about Earth Science or engaging with our AuSIS program, please feel free to contact the team here.

Alternatively, please reach out to our wonderful Project Lead for additional information. Happy stamping everyone!

Last year’s winners from Beerwah State High School who spelt out their school's name in morse code with a seismic signal. Find out more here. Image: Beerwah State High School

STORY IN A NUTSHELL
Science Quake of the Year is back for another year of foot stomping! See who took out the top gong and other participants who delivered unique jumps.

CONTACT INFORMATION
Project Lead: Sima Mousavi, AuScope

AUTHORS
Author: Daniel Vlahek, AuScope
Editor: Philomena Manifold, AuScope

FURTHER INFORMATION