Joanna Reynoso was terrified of earthquakes.

"Everyone is," the San Bernardino resident said. "I remember the Northridge quake. I was at home. Everything started shaking. It was just terrible."

But she's losing her fear, thanks in part to lessons in her geology class at Cal State San Bernardino. And thanks to the 4-foot-tall, high-tech gadget she watched over last week in a parking lot on Redlands Boulevard in Loma Linda.

The device, mounted on a tripod carefully aligned over a metal notch in the concrete sidewalk, is an antenna that receives radio signals from a dozen satellites. The signals are used to measure the exact location of the notch, so that Reynoso -- and teams of scientists -- can determine just how much that notch has moved since it was placed there six months ago.

That's how she was measuring how much strain is being placed on the San Andreas earthquake fault.

"I think it's a great experience," Reynoso said of her work. "I'm helping with a study to learn more about earthquakes. I'm learning not to fear earthquakes. They are a natural thing. Just helping makes me feel great."

Fear reduction may be a side benefit, said her teacher, Cal State geology professor Sally McGill. The purpose of the three-year study is to lure minorities to the field of geology and to track movement along two major earthquake faults that slice through the Inland Empire: the San Andreas and the San Jacinto.

The faults themselves are locked in position, McGill said. As the northbound Pacific plate and the southbound North American plate gradually move, strain builds along the faults. When the faults themselves move, major earthquakes occur.

The last major earthquake in a stretch of the San Andreas fault that passes the university was in 1812.

"People have found streambeds that were offset 12 to 15 feet by that earthquake," McGill said.

"We are measuring movement along the San Andreas and the San Jacinto faults so we can figure out how many years it would take to bend the plates enough to be able to slip the fault that far," she said. "That will give us a rough idea when to expect an earthquake."

The university obtained a $644,000 grant last year from the National Science Foundation to conduct the study. They will take measurements in six-month increments and feed the data into a computer program maintained by the Southern California Earthquake Center at USC.

A portion of the grant money is being used to reach out to minorities at middle schools and high schools in the Inland area to pique interest in geology. It also will help recruit minorities at Cal State San Bernardino either to switch their major to geology or to take geology as a minor.

A few students have taken the bait, McGill said. She expects to see more in the years ahead. To make sure of that, 10 high school and middle school geology teachers were added to the 21 students conducting the study.

"Hopefully, those teachers will go back to their schools and tell their students, 'Hey, I was involved in this GPS project over the summer.' "

The students and teachers set up antennas to receive signals from Global Positioning Satellites at a dozen locations stretching from Norco to the Lucerne Valley. One of them, near the Arrowhead Springs Hotel in San Bernardino, is just a few blocks from the university campus.

"That one is right on the San Andreas fault, so we don't expect to find much movement there," McGill said. "The farther out we go, especially in the High Desert, the more movement we expect to find."

The students and teachers set up their antennas to take at least eight hours of readings over a three- to four-day period.

"The hardest part is getting the equipment level and centered" over the target, said student Rillene Nielsen of San Bernardino. "You get it centered, and then you've got to have it level. When you level it, you look through the eyepiece, and you're not centered anymore. So you center it again, and then you're not level. It's frustrating."

It took about an hour for Nielsen and fellow student Maria Rodriguez to set up their antennas at the Arrowhead site, but they said it was worth it.

"Once you're set up, you baby-sit the equipment and do your homework and read," Nielsen said.

She is a 43-year-old mother of six who went back to school last fall to resume a college education she had postponed to raise a family. She has switched her major four times over the years but won't be switching again to geology.

"My husband was a geology major," she said. "He's a plumbing contractor right now. When I get done and I get back in the work force, he would like to go back to school."

In their retirement years, she said, they look forward to taking geological field trips together. "You might say I'm doing this to keep peace in the family," she said.

Rodriguez, 38, of San Bernardino took the bait. She recently added geology as a minor to her studies in math.

"I didn't want to be a couch potato anymore, so when my four kids got old enough to start school, I thought I'd do something to better myself," she said.

Jamaican-born sophomore Camille Beckford, 20, said she has been interested in geology since she was a small child.

"I took a lot of earthquake classes in Jamaica," she said. "There, geology is incorporated in geography. Jamaica is famous for earthquakes that nearly destroyed the island. I thought there was a good opportunity in California to learn more about earthquakes."

It will be a while before she learns what her study is uncovering.

McGill said scientists believe the North American plate is moving about an inch a year and the Pacific plate about 2 inches. Data from her study will fill in the gaps between permanent measuring stations that run the length of California. The calculations could take at least another year.