Teacher Resources
The Kansas Geological Survey supports teachers by providing in-person and virtual visits to your classroom and activities that you can download and give to your students. If you would like to arrange a visit, need help with the activities, or need access to an answer key, send an email to our educator, Andy Connolly, at andrewco@ku.edu.
Links to Downloadable Teaching Material by Topic
The following topics are available to download for classroom use. All topics denote grade level and include activities and worksheets you can apply to your classroom. If you would like the answer key to the worksheet, please email Andy Connolly at andrewco@ku.edu using your professional email account.
Earthquakes of Kansas Activities
In-Person Visits
If you live in northeast Kansas, contact us to arrange an in-person visit from our educator, who can engage your class using KGS-developed teaching modules. Modules are flexible and can be used with different grade levels depending on your learning goals. We also can cover other geology topics, such as the geologic history of your area.
We offer the following teaching modules:
Rocks and Minerals—Observe rocks and minerals and learn how to identify them using the streak test, scratch test, fluorescent lighting, and more. Learn about the common rocks and minerals of Kansas and how they were formed.
Fossil Habitats of Kansas—Observe fossils from five different time periods and habitats of Kansas: Paleozoic seas, Paleozoic forests, Cretaceous seas, Miocene savannah, and Pleistocene plains. Learn how Kansas has changed over millions of years and identify common fossils found across the state.
Earthquakes of Kansas—Learn how earthquakes form, where they occur in Kansas, the dangers of soil liquefaction, and how we can construct buildings to resist earthquakes. Students can make their own waves and watch them form with our seismograph. Our shake-table will give students the chance to make building models and see how well they would fare in an actual earthquake.
An accessible version of the documents on this site will be made available upon request. Please contact the KGS editor at kgs-editor@ku.edu to request the document be made available in an accessible format.