Designed to teach children about earthquakes and tectonic plate shifts, the earthquake project uses direct input from the users in order to create an active learning process.

One aspect of the project leads the children through a demonstration of the destructive nature of earthquakes. By joining with their classmates to jump up and down upon our 'earthquake maker', they can create the seismic activity that will cause a projection of a city to crumble. After causing this godzilla-like destruction, the children learn how scientists and architects have come together to build safer buildings that can withstand greater intensities of tremors. Before their eyes, one of these buildings is created, and they are challenged to jump up and down again. When they do so, they create more seismic activity, but unlike the first time when the city was destroyed, they are shown how the building holds up to the stress of an earthquake and how physics has improved the architectural design of modern buildings.

Another part of the project examines how earthquakes are measured. Through use of hand pressure, the exponential nature of the Richter scale is demonstrated through clear graphics and direct visual feedback to the children.

The earthquake project is designed to get kids excited about science and the world around them, show them what earthquakes are like and what to do should one occur, and to support the science curriculum of elementary and middle schools that will be experiencing this installation.