Sharon, Tenn.–Earthquakes shook Sharon Summer Scholars’ learning environment Tuesday as students dug deeper into how the earth works.
Dr. Stan Dunagan, Professor of Geology in UTM’s Department of Agriculture, Geosciences, and Natural Resources, traded his usual classroom of college students for elementary and middle schoolers in a lab at Sharon School. Dunagan is also a member of the Henry County Schools board of education.
Continuing their collaborative learning in Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Art and Math, Summer Scholars helped one another build houses out of peanut butter and Starbursts, then mixed up various degrees of ”earth” with cornstarch and water, before placing all on a large tin of rolling candy to simulate a 30-second quake.
Lessons learned included that what goes up will come down (like chimneys) and houses built on sinking sand will definitely sink!