Science educators are constantly searching for ways to make their lessons more relevant to students, so a professor at the University of California at Riverside must have felt particularly fortunate on Tuesday when his lecture on earthquake waves was disrupted by a 5.4-magnitude temblor.

David Oglesby, an associate professor in the department of earth sciences and an expert on earthquake physics, was telling students the difference between “P” and “S” ground waves when the quake hit at 11:42 a.m., Pacific time. He and 17 students in the Community College Internship program, sponsored by the UCR Graduate School of Education’s Copernicus Project, took cover under their desks.

“The timing was so perfect that participants may have thought that we had installed special effects,” said Raymond Hurst, education and business liaison for the Copernicus Project. “But when it really started shaking and the professor went under the table, they realized it was serious.”

The lecture resumed after the shaking subsided. No damages were reported on the campus.

“We were talking about it, and the next thing we experienced it,” said Thalia Torres, a student from Pasadena City College who was attending the lecture. “What a great way to learn.” —Don Troop