Next year, students can "Shake Up Africa" -- or at least learn about it -- in a new science general education class offered by Andy Nyblade.

Two years ago, Nyblade, a Penn State professor, partnered with the South Africa's University of Witwatersrand and the Council for Geoscience to form a program to gather geophysical data in Africa.

So far, the program, called AfricaArray, has placed 18 stations in six African countries to measure earthquakes.

Nyblade said he would use the collected information to teach students about natural resource exploration and the environment on the African continent.

"It's an important issue with the price of gas increasing," he said. "More information hasn't been available because of political instability in Africa."

Nyblade was born in Tanzania and has studied African geophysics for more than 20 years.

In the future, he hopes to put more instruments in the stations and be able to measure gas concentrations and climate patterns.

"Very few stations already exist in Africa, and scientists don't have access to them," Nyblade said. "So it doesn't do us much good."

AfricaArray also strives to improve the continent's geophysical programs. It sends American students to Africa to set up instruments and train locals in the equipment's use.

So far, five graduate students have journeyed with the program.

Angela Larson (graduate-geoscience) traveled with AfricaArray in January and helped with 24 seismic monitors in Cameroon.

Since then, the sensors have recorded more than just earthquakes.

"The equipment picked up the fans cheering for the soccer games of the Africa Cup," she said. "It's pretty effective."

Aubreya Adams (graduate-seismology) also went to Zambia in January and trained a group of Africans in using and maintaining the instruments.

"Some didn't have much experience, so that was a little challenging," she said. "They were pretty new to the software."

Adams also said she loved the combination of scientific study and cultural experience.

"I got to travel through the country and see wildlife in a game area. It was so exciting," she said. "I visited lots of villages and saw all the people in huts. It was a much different lifestyle than here."

Both students said they appreciated their standard of living after visiting Africa.

"I didn't have a lot of conveniences, like hot water," Adams said. "I saw poverty and signs and billboards with AIDS warnings everywhere. I rarely see that kind of thing here."

Larson said she was stunned by the void of educational resources in the African universities.

"I couldn't believe the lack of computers and paper at the university in the capital of Cameroon," Larson said. "It made me realize how much I take for granted. Here, computers are everywhere. It made me appreciate Penn State."