Brooklyn students learn about earthquakes after Friday's rumble
NEW YORK - Students at a school in Red Hook, Brooklyn are excited to learn more about earthquakes after experiencing one firsthand Friday morning.
A strange sound echoed through Brian Bissinger's third grade science class Friday morning. The class paused. It was glass beakers rattling in their shelves.
"We were like, what is going on, what is that?" said Bissinger, a science teacher at Basis Independent Brooklyn Upper School.
"Some of us felt it, but we thought that it was just people walking around," says third grader Laila Madhosingh.
After a school-wide drill to make sure everyone was safe, the science behind earthquakes became the topic of the day.
"I asked Mr. Bissinger how earthquakes are made and he said it's two plate things and it goes together and shakes the earth," explained Hudson Barrion, also in third grade.
"Basically something in the ground where the plates shift and the ground shakes a bit," adds his classmate, Daniel Karim.
"We talked it through, answered questions, talked about what an earthquake was. It kind of connects to what we're learning now, we learning about space and how the Earth moves," Bissinger tells CBS New York's Hannah Kliger.
Students in the classroom continued their daily lessons, though the morning's excitement lingered.
"I felt like yay I survived a mini earthquake," Madhosingh says.
Senior Alex Rosenzweig, who is set to graduate in a few weeks, felt the rumble from the fifth floor lounge.
"I felt scared, not going to lie, because New York is not really a seismologically active place," he says.
The school is planning a large eclipse watch party for students on Monday, and there's a lot of interest in science around the school these days.
"I felt pretty excited because I haven't felt an earthquake before in my whole life," Karim says.
"I kinda got nervous but not too nervous. I was excited to feel my first earthquake," adds Barrion.
Teachers say concerned parents have checked in throughout the day, but students say the experience in the classroom won't be a lesson they'll soon forget.
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