CEDAR RAPIDS - Wednesday, thousands feared a tsunami in the Pacific that never happened. The warning came after an 8.0 magnitude quake stirred up the water near the island of Tonga.

Thousands of miles away in Cedar Rapids, a group of high school students felt the earthquake's force.

Jefferson High School teacher Sue Vogel said, "We had a major earthquake come in this morning."

Junior Jacob Uptain said, "We picked it up during fourth hour."

Junior Brandon McHugh said, "We figured it out pretty fast. We knew it before CNN did."

It's part of a program called "Seismographs in Schools."

Junior Brian Atwood said, "Rather than hear it from someone else, you've got first hand information."

Uptain said, "Before we had this, all I knew was it was a line and it went up and down and it meant that the earth was shaking."

Once students learned how powerful this earthquake really was, they applied its force at home with model buildings and an earthquake demonstrator.

Junior Laurel Jones said, "When you put it on there and see it crumble, you're going to realize that's what an earthquake does."

Vogel said, "Any time you can get real world experiences for students, that's always a good thing." She also said another good thing was that students could experience the earthquake's effects without the danger.

The United States Geological Survey said this quake was considerably smaller than the 2004 quake that triggered a massive tsunami in the Indian Ocean, killing more than 200,000 people.

Luckily, officials lifted all tsunami warnings after Wednesday's quake.

E-mail Josh Hinkle at Josh.Hinkle@kcrg.com.