Earthquakes in your Backyard (EPS20) is a large lower division undergraduate class at UC Berkeley, taught by Professors Richard Allen and Roland Burgmann. Students come from a wide variety of intended majors, including STEM, Economics, Business, and Media Studies, amongst others. Students spend a semester learning all about earthquake and tsunami hazards, with a particular emphasis on the issues facing California. Equal emphasis is placed on the scientific understanding of these phenomena and potential mitigation actions.

My role

Semesters taught: Fall 2023 (With Professor Richard Allen)

As a Teaching Assistant for EPS20, I assisted students from a wide variety of backgrounds during office hours, delivering one-to-one teaching on various concepts covered in class. A real highlight of the class for the students is the Hayward Fault Field Trip, which I have already led 3 times. I led the students on a walking tour along the exposed trace of the Hayward Fault in the Berkeley Hills, which is known to produce M7+ earthquakes, last doing so in 1868. Students spend 2.5 hours learning about fault geomorphology and the expressions of faulting, and how different structures built on the fault have been engineered to withstand the next Berkeley earthquake.