FIELDWORK / THE SHARED PORTFOLIO

What will you
explore next?

Five hands-on activities. A BoodleBox guide for each one. Choose something that catches your interest, then come back here whenever you want a new direction.

One home. Two sides working together.

Keep BoodleBox on the left and the website on the right. With the updated Companion Pane extension, choose an activity below to open its matching pair. Your choices become a note you review and send to the guide. Ready for something else? Use Back to portfolio on any activity, or ask any guide for the portfolio.

NEW HERE? START WITH A LITTLE PRACTICE.

Learn the side-by-side loop.

Choose a badge, approve your first note, and follow the guide’s link back. About 3–5 minutes.

Start First Steps →

Choose your next investigation.

Illustration of an open casebook, archival folders, pencil, and magnifying glass

AI illustration

01 / Pictures and evidence

Pueblo History Detective

Inspect six Library of Congress photographs. Separate what you see from what you infer, then build a claim the evidence can support.

Investigate the photographs

USGS public data

02 / Tsunami investigation

Before the wave arrives

Compare two fictional wave-arrival routes, then investigate historical tsunamis, earthquake monitoring, and warnings. Your work is saved in this browser.

Investigate the wave

03 / Decisions and tradeoffs

Community Budget Challenge

One fictional town. Five years. Decide what to build, what to maintain, and how much to keep in reserve. Then test a difficult year.

Balance the budget →

$12mMake it last.

04 / Claims and contradictions

Public Hearing Detective

A confident public statement. Nine exhibits. Question witnesses in the fictional Eastbank case and explain what the evidence supports.

Open the Eastbank case →

Fictional case file“Tested
and ready.”Does the record agree?

Opening the two sides yourself?

Each activity above works as a website. Open its matching guide below, choose Start New Chat, and keep the two beside each other. BoodleBox sign-in is required. Without the extension, copy your prepared note into the chat and press Send.

05 / FROM AN IDEA TO A FIRST PLAN

Business Plan First Steps

Describe an idea in ordinary conversation and let the guide turn it into editable draft language, or choose among five fictional business examples. Explore the numbers and leave with a first draft, planning gaps and a next test.

Make a first draft →

YOU APPROVE THE HANDOFF

Explore hereReview your noteSend it to your guide

About the portfolio ↗

01 / Pueblo History Detective

What can a photograph prove?

Start with what you can see. Then read the catalog and test your explanation.

Observe · Infer · Question

Read the catalog card

A quick evidence check

Which claim does the catalog support?

Choose a statement, then check the reasoning.

Illustrated casebook and magnifying glass — AI illustration

A detective’s next move

One photograph starts a story.
A second can challenge it.

Try another photograph. Compare what each reveals—and what each leaves outside the frame. Your evidence note can collect observations from all six.

02 / Dot Lab

How did you see that number?

Start with small groups at your own pace. Add a timer when you want a challenge.

Your own data · About 2 minutes

2–4 dots · 6 rounds · No timer

Ready when you areGROUPED

Find your own pace

Look. Notice.
Take your time.

Take as long as you like. Hide the dots when you’re ready, then answer.

03 / Earthquake Explorer · Why USGS and NOAA matter

Before the wave arrives.

How rare disasters, public investment, and preparation connect.

Read · Connect · Explain

How this lesson worksA quick guide to the website and BoodleBox

This website is your activity space. The BoodleBox guide is your conversation partner. Explore here, then bring your answers to the guide when you want to talk them through.

Explore on this page.
Follow the five stops below. Look at the images, try the choices, and write short answers in the boxes. Use the hints whenever you need them, then choose Continue at the bottom of each stop.
Prepare your answers to share.
At Harbor Point, choose Prepare note for BoodleBox whenever you want to discuss your current assumptions—even before you have an explanation. Review the note, then put it in a paired Chrome chat or copy and paste it. You can also share a checkpoint at stop 3 or your explanation at stop 5.
Discuss, then come back.
Review the note in your BoodleBox message box and press Send. Without the extension, paste it there first. The guide can explain a confusing idea or ask about your reasoning. Follow its next activity link when you are ready to continue here. Keep the same chat open for your next note.

You approve what the guide receives. The extension can place your chosen note in the chat draft; you review it and press Send. Copy and paste works too. Later clicks and answers stay on this website until you share another note. Your written answers are saved in this browser.

Open the BoodleBox guide ↗

For your first chat, open the guide above, sign in if needed, and choose Start New Chat. Keep that chat and this page open in separate tabs. If a long pasted note becomes attached text, type Discuss this checkpoint and send.

You can also finish the whole lesson here without BoodleBox. The stop 3 conversation, extra source material, and live earthquake feed are optional. For a first try, keep Alaska · 1964 selected and begin with A distant coast.

This is a learning activity. For current coastal guidance, visit NOAA’s official tsunami alerts ↗.

Explore the full lesson, figures, and sources

The question worth asking

Why keep watch when most days are quiet?

Destructive tsunamis are rare, but a single event can kill thousands. NOAA estimates that tsunamis causing damage or deaths on distant shores occur about twice per decade worldwide. That is a historical average, not a schedule. NOAA/NWS background ↗

USGS earthquake monitoring and NOAA tsunami warnings work together to protect vulnerable coasts. Their value depends on being ready before the exceptional day arrives.

Four illustrated stages show an earthquake lifting the seafloor, water displaced above it, waves spreading across the ocean, and waves slowing and growing higher in shallow coastal water. — **Figure 1.** An underwater earthquake can displace water and send waves across an ocean. Not every earthquake causes a tsunami. Credit: **Ocean Institute; modified by NOAA/NWS**, as credited in the original image. NOAA/NWS source Open full-size image ↗

01 / What history shows

Three earthquakes. Consequences across oceans.

Read these examples of the damage tsunamis can cause and the difference warnings can make. The death estimates count different things; read the labels before comparing them.

Historic color photograph of wrecked cars, boats, and debris along the Kodiak, Alaska waterfront after the 1964 tsunami. — **Figure 2.** Tsunami damage in Kodiak, Alaska, after the 1964 earthquake. Credit: **USGS Alaska Technical Data Unit**, catalogue SF-GP-00-0107. Public domain. USGS photograph record Open full-size image ↗

Photograph of a damaged building, an overturned boat, and debris in Natori, Japan, with a person and vehicle providing a sense of scale. — **Figure 3.** Wreckage in Natori, Japan, photographed after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Credit: **Bruce Jaffe, USGS**. Public domain. USGS photograph record Open full-size image ↗

NOAA PMEL model of the March 2011 Japan tsunami across the Pacific, with Japan on the left and North America on the right. The color scale runs from 0 to at least 240 centimeters of maximum deep-water wave amplitude. — **Figure 4.** Colors show modeled maximum tsunami amplitudes in deep water for the March 2011 Japan event. The scale is in **centimeters**. Coastal flooding requires a local assessment; this is a historical model visualization.
**Look closer.** Locate Japan, Hawaii, and the U.S. West Coast. Why would a warning network need measurements from across this ocean?
Credit: **NOAA/PMEL**, reproduced from Bernard, Meinig, Titov, and Wei (2023), *Oceanography*, opening illustration. Source article · CC BY 4.0. Image reproduced unchanged.Open full-size image ↗

Historical estimates can differ between sources. Each death estimate is attributed to the linked NOAA record, with earthquake and tsunami totals distinguished.

02 / How warnings work

From a moving seafloor to a community taking action.

Many earthquake-generated tsunamis begin when sudden seafloor movement displaces water. Not every earthquake generates a tsunami. How tsunamis form ↗

NOAA diagram connecting seismic stations, a DART buoy, and a coastal sea-level station to a tsunami warning center, then to emergency managers, broadcasters, and the public. — **Figure 5.** Follow the observations into the warning center, then follow the messages out to the coast. Sensors, communications, forecasters, and local response all have a role. Credit: **NOAA/National Weather Service**, National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program. NOAA/NWS source Open full-size image ↗

NOAA DART cutaway showing a bottom pressure recorder communicating acoustically with a surface buoy, and the buoy transmitting by satellite to shore facilities. The original diagram includes historical warning-center labels. — **Figure 6.** The seafloor pressure recorder sends measurements through an acoustic link to the buoy, which relays them by satellite to shore. The original diagram retains historical warning-center labels.
**Look closer.** Trace the measurement from the pressure recorder to shore. Which links need power, maintenance, and reliable communications?
Credit: **NOAA/PMEL**, reproduced from Bernard, Meinig, Titov, and Wei (2023), *Oceanography*, Figure 2. Source article · CC BY 4.0. Image reproduced unchanged.Open full-size image ↗

NOAA’s yellow and black tsunami-monitoring buoy floating in the ocean. — **Figure 7.** The visible part of a DART system. A separate recorder on the seafloor measures pressure changes; the buoy relays data. Photograph: **NOAA**, reproduced from the saved 2024 modernization announcement, page 2. Open full-size image ↗

These jobs overlap. NOAA may issue an initial alert while ocean measurements are still arriving.

The U.S. has exposed coastlines.

Alaska, Hawaii, the West Coast, and Pacific and Caribbean territories face substantial tsunami hazards. Low-lying communities and harbors can be threatened by local events or waves crossing an ocean. NOAA/NWS coastal hazards ↗

A nearby tsunami can outrun an official alert.

In a coastal hazard zone, strong or long shaking, unusual sea movement, or an ocean roar can be a natural warning. Protect yourself during shaking; when you can move safely, follow evacuation routes to high ground or inland. Do not wait for an official alert. NOAA/NWS safety guidance ↗

03 / What readiness costs

The public pays for readiness on quiet days, too.

Both NOAA and USGS maintain sensor networks with partners at substantial taxpayer expense. Public funding keeps instruments reporting, communications working, and specialists ready to interpret an event.

NOAA’s DART instruments are designed for tsunami detection. USGS seismic networks also support earthquake response, shaking alerts, engineering, and hazard research. USGS network mission ↗

A warning depends on this work being done before the earthquake happens.

USGS / annual monitoring appropriation

$62.6 million

Congress appropriated $62.645 million for FY2024 ANSS earthquake and crustal-deformation monitoring and reporting. This supports broader earthquake functions, so it is not a tsunami-only budget.

See the wider USGS program budget

FY2024 Earthquake Hazards Program
Appropriated funding, millions of dollars
Purpose	Amount
Hazard and risk assessment	$16.376
Research on causes and effects	$13.630
ANSS monitoring and reporting	$62.645
Program total	$92.651

Monitoring accounts for about two-thirds of this program. Research and hazard assessment help turn observations into risk reduction.

Read saved budget PDF · p. 8 ↗Original USGS report ↗

NOAA / modernization investment

$30 million

Announced in May 2024 to modernize DART equipment described as 20 years old, improving data availability and reliability. NOAA awarded a development contract to SAIC using infrastructure-law funding.

The announcement scheduled replacement for 2025–2028. It does not establish current progress or an annual operating total.

Read saved NOAA announcement (PDF) ↗Original NOAA announcement ↗

These are dated examples with different scopes: one annual USGS allocation and one NOAA upgrade project. Adding them would not give the system’s annual cost.

Budget chart / Reading the public investment

One USGS program. Three kinds of work.

$62.645 millionANSS monitoring and reporting
67.6% of the program
$16.376 millionHazard and risk assessment
17.7% of the program
$13.630 millionTargeted earthquake research
14.7% of the program

FY2024 appropriation. This chart uses USGS budget data. The full bar represents $92.651 million appropriated for the FY2024 Earthquake Hazards Program. It includes broader earthquake work and is separate from NOAA’s modernization project. Source: USGS table 1, printed page 8.

Three kinds of observations. Different jobs.

Ground / USGS and partners

≈150 global seismic stations

The Global Seismographic Network is a USGS, National Science Foundation, and EarthScope partnership. Stations record ground motion and send data for rapid earthquake analysis. U.S. regional networks add further coverage; this count is for the GSN alone.

Where was the earthquake, and how large was it?

Explore the USGS network ↗

Deep ocean / NOAA

39 NOAA DART systems

Each system pairs a pressure recorder on the seafloor with a moored surface buoy. It detects changes in the water column as a tsunami passes. NOAA’s National Data Buoy Center operates and maintains this U.S. network; other countries also contribute observations.

What is the wave doing in the open ocean?

NOAA’s ocean instruments ↗

Coast / NOAA tide gauges

1 minute between tsunami-capable gauge reports

Coastal water-level measurements help warning centers track arriving waves and refine forecasts. This network also serves navigation, coastal planning, and flood response.

What is actually happening at the shore?

How NOAA uses tide gauges ↗ · Open the station map ↗

Two USGS field workers beside a seismometer installation and equipment case in the desert near Ridgecrest, California; one holds a shovel. — **Figure 8.** Installing a seismometer near Ridgecrest, California, in 2019. This is earthquake-monitoring fieldwork; seismic networks serve broader earthquake needs as well as informing tsunami assessment. Credit: **Elizabeth Cochran, USGS**. Public domain. USGS photograph record Open full-size image ↗

What needs funding between disasters?

Equipment and field work

Seismic stations need sensor upgrades, calibration, and continuing maintenance, including at remote sites. That work keeps their measurements useful to USGS and NOAA.

USGS laboratory priorities, 2026 ↗

Ocean servicing and power

DART equipment must be deployed and recovered at sea. Battery packs power the underwater recorder and buoy; moorings hold the buoy in position. Batteries, electronics, and communications require monitoring. The DART II design includes duplicate buoy electronics for backup.

NOAA engineering and recovery details (PDF) ↗

Communications and data quality

Staff check instrument calibration, battery condition, buoy location, and the delivery of observations. Missing or delayed data need attention while the system is still on watch.

NOAA data-management responsibilities, page 21 (PDF) ↗

People and forecasting

NOAA’s warning centers monitor 24 hours a day, every day. Specialists need maintained computing systems and forecast models to turn incoming measurements into useful warnings.

NOAA’s continuous watch ↗ · Forecasting work ↗

What the historical evidence implies

In a severe event threatening populated U.S. coasts, timely warnings and effective evacuation could save many thousands of lives. The actual benefit depends on warning time, exposure, and people’s ability to act. NOAA credits the connected warning and evacuation system with limiting deaths outside Japan in 2011. NOAA’s assessment ↗

Discuss: what should we measure besides the number of disasters in a single year when judging this public investment?

Check your understanding

Connect the evidence to the system.

04 / Discuss what you learned in BoodleBox

Make the case for being ready.

Use one historical example to explain your thinking. Answer the questions below, then copy your response into BoodleBox to discuss it with your bot.

Which event will you use in your response?

The event’s facts and source links will accompany your answers.

Why is maintaining these systems worth considering even when destructive tsunamis are rare?What has to happen after a sensor detects an event for people to benefit?

Optional investigation: examine today’s USGS earthquake feedWhat can seismic data tell us—and what still requires ocean observations and NOAA’s assessment?

Recent earthquake reports · This is not a tsunami warning map. Open official alerts ↗

Earthquakes—

Largest magnitude—

Median depth—

Select an event to inspect it

<70 km 70–300 km >300 km

Recent events

Sort

Magnitude	Location / UTC time	Depth	Action

No events loaded yet.

This optional note contains the feed and reference-section answers. Your guided investigation has its own checkpoints above.

04 / Community Budget Challenge Fictional town

What will your town pay for?

You’re advising the council of fictional Riverton. Recommend a plan that improves life in town, keeps its investments working, and leaves enough money to handle a difficult year.

Read the model’s rules ↗

A public budget is a set of choices.

Residents want better libraries, safer roads, welcoming parks, flood protection, and prepared emergency teams. Each has a good case for funding. Your job is to decide how much to invest in each—and explain the tradeoffs to the people who live here.

There is no single winning allocation. A useful plan has a clear purpose, covers its costs in every year, and acknowledges what it leaves undone. This exercise calculates costs; it leaves the value of those choices for you to discuss.

Where does your money come from?

You start with $12 million available in year 1 for new investments. The town’s existing day-to-day services are already funded separately. This is an additional investment fund, not Riverton’s entire budget.

In each of years 2–5, another $1 million enters the fund after existing services are paid for. That makes $16 million over five years, but the later money is not available to spend on day one.

Opening day is only the beginning.

New facilities and equipment need ongoing upkeep. Each investment adds an annual cost, starting in year 1, and the required amount rises 3% each year.

The upkeep slider controls how much of that requirement you pay. 100% means fully funding the upkeep your chosen projects need—not spending your whole budget on maintenance. Paying less leaves more cash now, but lowers the model’s equipment-condition index over time.

What is the reserve?

Your reserve is money left in the fund after that year’s costs. It carries forward into the next year. Keeping some in reserve gives the town room to respond when things go wrong.

A negative reserve means the plan cannot pay its bills as written. You must change your choices or identify additional funding. A positive balance in year 5 does not erase a shortfall in an earlier year.

Why try the storm?

Turn on a storm in year 3 to add an unexpected repair bill. In this simplified model, flood protection, emergency readiness, and well-maintained equipment reduce that bill. They do not make it disappear.

The town, costs, and storm are fictional teaching assumptions. The exercise helps you explore preparedness and future obligations; it does not predict real flood damage or tell you which public service matters most.

For your first try

Choose a starting plan. Move the investment sliders to reflect your priorities.
Save it for comparison. This keeps a reference while you try changes.
Add the storm. Watch the five-year reserve, then revise one choice and compare.
Explain your decision. Write your reasoning below and bring the results to BoodleBox for discussion.

Go to the budget controls ↓

Available at the start$12.00m

Upfront investments—

Year 1 reserve, after upkeep—

Year 5 closing reserve—

01 / Set your priorities

Choose your investments.

Try a starting point

These are new investments. Existing town services are already funded separately. Amounts change in $250,000 steps.

02 / Keep it working

Buildings need more than an opening day.

Fund the annual upkeep requirement100%

03 / Test your cushion

A storm in year three.

Emergency repairs draw on the same reserve. Flood protection, readiness, and upkeep change the modeled bill.

Include the storm

04 / Look beyond year one

Your reserve over five years.

After existing services, $1 million is added in each of years 2–5. Required upkeep grows 3% a year. A negative reserve is an unfunded gap.

Current plan

See the year-by-year numbers

Current plan · dollars
Year	New funding	Investments	Upkeep paid	Storm repairs	Closing reserve

05 / Make your case

What did you choose—and give up?

Explain one priority, one tradeoff, and how you handled future costs.

05 / Public Hearing Detective Fictional case · 2027

Was Eastbank really ready?

A flood-protection project was declared “tested and ready.” Streets flooded three weeks later. Question the assurance without jumping to a cause.

Read the complete case file ↗

Your assignment Compare the records, pin useful exhibits, and prepare a question a witness can actually answer.

1 of 9 exhibits opened

Put the dates together

What happened before what?

Prepare to question a witness

Ask within their line of sight.

Your question

Your prepared questions 0 / 5

Check the strength of your claims

Supported, contradicted, or unresolved?

Bring your brief to the hearing

What can you responsibly conclude?

Cite exhibit IDs. Separate your finding from the next evidence you need.