This talk was presented at the 2005 October 28 annual conference of the Association of Science Teachers, and is available for use by teachers in [PPT], [PDF] and [zipped keynote] forms.
Tsunami
SESSION G902
GRADES 11 and 12, OCEANS AND PHYSICS
JFK assassination, 9-11, the Indonesian Tsunami: such are
the events by which common memory is measured. My
presentation deals with the general Physics of Tsunamis as
well as the Indonesian case and a smaller event in eastern
Canada in the 1900s. The material will be suitable for
grade 11 or 12 students of Physics and Mathematics. I
will outline a homework assignment based on the
Indonesian case. This will illustrate academic topics
relating to wave propagation, as well as non-academic
topics relating to the heart-breaking simple calculations
that, if they could have been told at the time, would have
saved so many lives.