Australian Seismometers in Schools has put a call out to 48 schools across the country that are part of our program to record a footquake during National Science Week on their school seismometer.

Australian Seismometers in Schools is a national earth sciences outreach program funded by AuScope. We provide seismometers to schools, which record local and distant earthquakes as well as the buzz of human activity around the school. For this National Science week event we want participating schools to show us how they can shake the ground by jumping up and down. The signals will be recorded at the school and on our seismic network.

Up for grabs: the stunning Australian Seismometers in Schools Science Quake of the Year cup.

We want all our schools to submit their best footquake to us. All they need to do is get together and jump their hearts out. Then tell us:

• Date and time they jumped (so we can see their efforts on our Seismometer Network)
• The distance from the seismometer to the closest person
• How many jumpers participated
• Was it a school or class event or community jump?
• What was special about their jump

Because we know there will be lots of creative entries and because we want to encourage big and small schools to participate here are some examples of things we might judge the best quake on:

• Synchronisation of the jump
• Size of signal per person
• Length of signal
• Photos of participation
• Community involvement

Entries close on the 18 August at 8pm AEST, the last Friday of Science Week and we will try to announce the winners the following week.

We hope this event will encourage engagement in our schools and hope to eventually synchronise a nationwide Footqauke.