College of Arts and Sciences Poster Presentations
Title
Latest Developments in the Slinky Seismometer Education Program
Document Type
Student Presentation
Presentation Date
4-16-2012
Faculty Sponsor
Kasper van Wijk
Abstract
Five years after its inception, the Boise State Seismic Station is still developing and expanding. This program involves four components: the creation of inexpensive Slinky seismometers in the introductory Geophysics 201 course, installation of Slinky seismometers in schools, and a permanent display of the Boise State Seismic Station in the Math/Geoscience Building. The final piece is dissemination of processed seismic data via our website and, when requested, through local news. This website also includes educational information regarding geophysics, and detailed instructions on building and maintaining your own seismometer. In this presentation, we report the most recent developments of the project. They include the latest refinement of the Slinky seismometer design and its website http://cgiss.boisestate.edu/ssis, as well as the creation of a newly-designed amplifier/converter to link the Slinky Seismometers and computer. As a result of these developments, new schools have installed -- or are in the process of installing – slinky seismometers. Future plans include further educational outreach to schools and the Boise State community, with the aim of furthering seismological knowledge and interest.