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Volcano!—Is That a Volcano on Your Plate? (Grades 6-8)

Master Teacher

Donna M. Petty

Time Allotment

Two 70-minute periods.

Overview

Volcanoes are called windows inside Earth because they are caused by the force of heated magma as it pushes through a break in Earth’s surface. Students will explore how and where volcanoes form.

The lesson begins with watching a segment of the video, where a park ranger compares the layers of the earth to a chocolate covered cherry, the students will explore this comparison and discuss it in an activity.

Next we go back to the video and watch the park ranger describe where volcanoes occur. The students then explore how the interactions between oceanic and continental crust create volcanoes and other mountains and earthquakes in a simulation activity using cardboard of two thicknesses. At the end of the activity, you will show the occurrence of earthquakes and volcanoes along these boundaries by using a program called seisvol.exe, which shows the occurrence of earthquakes and volcanoes for the last several decades. Students will see the Ring of Fire and the plate boundaries emerge as the program maps each seismic disturbance.

On the second day of the lesson, the Culminating Activity has the students working in pairs to gather answers to a set of questions on volcanoes, using the Internet.

Subject Matter

Science (Volcanoes)

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

Compare the layers of Earth to those of a chocolate covered cherry;
Label the layers of Earth on a diagram;
List the three types of plate interactions;
Draw the three interactions;
Name one landform that results from each plate interaction.

South Carolina Standards

(These Standards are available online at http://www.myscschools.com/offices/cso/)

Grade 8 III B 1-b & c; 3-b; 4-b

1. The solid Earth is layered with a lithosphere; hot, convecting asthenosphere within the mantle; and dense metallic core.

b. Explain the relative position, density, and composition of Earth’s crust, mantle, and core.

c. Differentiate among composition, density, and location of continental crust and oceanic crust.
3. Major geologic events such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and mountain building result from lithospheric plate motions. Landforms and sea-floor features are the result of a combination of constructive (crustal deformation, volcanic eruptions, deposition of sediment) and destructive (weathering, erosion) process.
b. Compare and contrast with respect to the four types of regions where volcanoes occur (e.g., mid-ocean ridges, intra-plate regions, island arcs, and along some continental edges.)

4. Lithospheric plates on the scales of continents and oceans move at rates of centimeters per year in response to movement in the asthenosphere.

b. Compare and contrast the characteristics and interactions of the three types of plate boundaries (divergent, convergent, and transform boundaries plate boundaries).

National Science Education Standards

(These Standards can be found online at
http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/nses/html/6d.html.)

CONTENT STANDARD A:
As a result of activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop

Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
Understandings about scientific inquiry

CONTENT STANDARD B:
As a result of their activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop an understanding of

Properties and changes of properties in matter
Motions and forces
Transfer of energy

CONTENT STANDARD D:
As a result of their activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop an understanding of

Structure of the earth system

Media Components

Video

Journeys to Alaska: The Power of Volcanoes, Program 1: “What is a Volcano?” (This program is also available on the Web in digitized form at: http://www.njn.net/education/schoolmedia/oneplanet/volcanoes.html.)

Web Sites

Seisvol.exe Program
This program is used in the Learning Activities.

Looking Inside the Earth
This page explains about the different composition of oceanic crust and continental crust and how this causes continental crust to sort of “float.”

ARC Science: 150 Million Years of Paleo-Animation
This animation shows the movement of the Earth’s plates over the last 150 million years.

Plate Tectonics: The Mechanism
This Web site explains the four “main features of plate tectonics” and the evidence for this theory.

Location of Volcanoes, page 2
This page explains the various plate interactions and gives illustrations and examples of each.

Location of Volcanoes, page 3
This page does an exceptional job of explaining what a “hot spot” is.

On the Move…NASA’s Role in Investigating Continental Drift
This page explains what geodynamics is and why it is important.

Materials

chocolate covered cherries (one per student)
Student Viewing Guide (one per student)
plastic knives (class set)
paper towels for cleanup
2 corrugated pieces of cardboard, 4 inches wide, 8 inches long, labeled “continental crust"
2 thin pieces of cardboard (like a cereal box), 4 inches wide, 8 inches long labeled “oceanic crust” for each pair of students (Note to Teacher: You may have to cut the cardboard pieces each time you do this exercise because they may not be re-usable.)
colored pencils

Equipment

TV
VCR
overhead projector
computer with Internet access
AverKey
computer lab with Internet access and a color printer

Prep for Teachers

Put chocolate covered cherries in the refrigerator and chill them. Do not freeze them. Having them cold will help to keep the activity less messy.

Make a copy of the Student Viewing Guide (Activity Sheet 1) for each student.

Cue the video or load digitized version of video via the Internet and pause right after the picture of Mt. St. Helens, approximately 1 minute into the video when Rudy Mancke appears.

Cut pieces of two thicknesses of cardboard for each pair of students for the Learning Activity. You may want to diagram the plate interactions on the board for the students before starting the activity.

Download the seisvol.exe program from http://www.geol.binghamton.edu/faculty/jones/seisvole.exe and hook up the AverKey to the TV and computer.

You may wish to preload the links for the Knowledge Hunt and plug-ins like Quicktime.

When using media, provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction, a specific task to complete and/or information to identify during, or after viewing of video segments, Web sites, or other multimedia elements.

Introductory Activity

Step 1: Explain to your students that they will be watching video segments from Journeys to Alaska—The Power of Volcanoes to help them with this lesson. Provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction, asking them to listen to how they can compare the layers of the Earth to the layers in a chocolate covered cherry.

START the video at the cued spot (approximately 1 minute into the video when Rudy Mancke appears). STOP the video after Jen Adleman says, “…with a coating on the surface.”

Step 2: Hand out Activity Sheet 1, plastic knives, paper towels and the cold chocolate covered cherries. Explain to the students that they will get to eat the candy, but to wait until all the materials have been passed out.

Step 3: When all materials are distributed, have the students spread a paper towel onto their tables and place the candy on the paper towel. Have them use a sawing motion with the plastic knives on the candy to try to prevent crushing the candy as they cut the candy in half.

Step 4: Allow them to eat one half of their candy, but tell them to keep the other half on their paper towel. Discuss how each layer of the earth is similar to the layers of the candy. Earth is composed of four main divisions or layers: crust, mantle, outer core, and inner core. Since we live on the crust, this is the layer we know the most about. Through the study of seismic waves we have learned about the other layers and the surprising fact that the crust is the thinnest of the four, ranging from 5 to 40 kilometers thick. The crust is rigid, but brittle, just like the chocolate covering of our candy.

The mantle is the next layer below the crust, and it, like the “gelatinous filling” of our candy, is rather fluid and molten for the most part. Mantle thickness ranges from 40 to 2,900 kilometers. The upper part of the mantle and lower part of the crust is called the asthenosphere, which has a putty-like composition. This enables the crustal plates to move. Below the mantle is the outer core. Scientists believe that the outer core is composed of a metallic layer, which is mostly nickel. Since a certain type of earthquake wave doesn’t travel through liquids and those waves are refracted at this depth, scientists infer that the outer core is a molten liquid. They believe it to be 2,270 kilometers thick. This is the cherry part of our candy. If a chocolate covered cherry had a pit, it would be the inner core, a solid iron-rich mass with a radius of 1,216 kilometers. At the center of the Earth, the pressure from gravity is thought to be so high, that any material in this location would have to be a solid. Ask what they think would happen if we pricked the chocolate layer with a straight pin.

(Like when magma gets through a crack in the crust, the gelatinous material should “erupt” onto the surface.)

Step 5: Have them label the layers of the cherry chocolate and those of the Earth on their viewing guide. In the space provided, have them describe these correlations based on the composition of the layers, as well as contrast the candy with the Earth.

Step 6: Cleanup and eat the other half of the candies.

Learning Activity

Step 1: Explain to your students that they will be watching another video segment from Journeys to Alaska: The Power of Volcanoes to help them with the next activity. Provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction, asking them to listen to where volcanoes occur. START the video where we left off. STOP the video after Jen Adleman says, “And we are at the top of what’s known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, which is a zone of earthquakes and volcanoes all around the Pacific Ocean Basin.”

Step 2: Give 2 cardboard pieces to each pair of students. There should be either two thick cardboard pieces labeled “continental crust,” two thin cardboard pieces labeled “oceanic crust” or one “continental” and one “oceanic” piece of cardboard. These pieces represent plates floating on the mantle (or table, in this case).

Step 3: Have students move the strips along the top of the table simulating the three types of plate interactions: colliding (convergent boundary), pulling apart (divergent boundary) and sliding next to each other (transform boundary).

Step 4: After the interactions are noted, have students exchange pieces of cardboard to have different plate interactions; continent-continent, continent-ocean, ocean-ocean.

Step 5: Tell students then to draw pictures of how the cardboard pieces interact and label the types of interactions on Activity Sheet 1.

Step 6: Ask students to describe the two types of crust. Which one is thicker? Which one is heavier? How do those differences affect the landforms we see on Earth’s surface? What types of landforms result from different plate interactions? What happens when a subducted plate starts to melt? Why do plates move? What is convection?

Step 7: Using the TV which has the AverKey hooked up to the computer, from the seisvol menu choose the Smithsonian Exhibit Version. This has a world map centered around the Pacific Plate. Make sure the speakers on your computers are on—the “music” makes the numbers of eruptions that appear on the screen more dramatic. Provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction, asking them to look for where the plate boundaries are. After the “music” ends, ask the students if they can actually see where the plate boundaries are now. See if anyone remembers from the video where the different types of boundary interactions were occurring,

Culminating Activity

Step 1: Have the students pair up with another student who is sitting next to them in the computer lab and give them the Knowledge Hunt sheet (Activity Sheet 2) or have it available via a class Web site (which will make it easier to go to the links).

Step 2: Review the directions on the Knowledge Hunt and demonstrate how to do the activity by doing the first question together.

Step 3: Have students print their answer sheets after they’re finished.

Assessment

Use the rubric provided to assess their Knowledge Hunt.

Cross-Curricular Extensions

Language Arts / Student Fiction/Non-Fiction Connections (Grades 6-8):
The myths about volcanoes from various cultures of the world make for some very interesting reading! Students can then write their own myths.

To learn more about these different stories, send students to the Web site, Legends, at http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/kids/legends.html

OR

They can read one of the following novels centered around volcanoes.

Journey to the Volcano Palace (Secrets of Droon, No. 2) by Tony Abbott (Little Apple, 1999)

The Volcano Disaster by Peg Kehret (Aladdin Library, 1998)

The Volcano Goddess Will See You Now (Zack Files) by Dan Greenburg (Grosset & Dunlap, 1997)

Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of Mount St. Helens by Patricia Lauber (Scott Foresman, 1993)

Volcano & Earthquake Mazes by Roger Moreau (Sterling, 2000)

Social Studies: Latitude and longitude coordinates are used in the graphing of worldwide volcanoes and earthquakes. See: Locating Current Earthquakes and Volcanoes and have students complete the exercise.

The history of countries the world over have been affected by volcanoes. Here are two US Geological Survey sites to research:

Volcanoes and History (http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/LivingWith/Historical/framework.html) looks at where volcano names came from, looks at historical maps and journals, etc.

Volcanoes in Historical and Popular Culture (http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/LivingWith/PopCulture/framework.html) examines volcanoes in legends and mythology, TV and movies, and fictional literature, etc.

Math: For plate tectonics related math use, see The Rate of Plate Motion (http://home.usit.net/~geology/LivingEarth/Sheets/Rate_of_Movement.doc. Complete the activities.

For a neat little on-line quiz: see Kilauea, Hawaii Math Quiz
http://www.iss.k12.nc.us/schools/wms/thumphrey/worksheet.htm

Art: Get directions for making a paper mache model of a volcano or cut out the USGS paper model and color at: http://www.educ.uvic.ca/faculty/mroth/438/VOLCANO/PAPER_MACHE.html

Community Connections

Have a member of the USGS (In South Carolina, I recommend Gary L. Taylor at 803/896-7708.) visit the classroom to discuss volcanoes (or use portions of their slide show on-line at http://www.dnr.state.sc.us/geology/img/volcanoes.pdf .

Almost all states have some igneous past. Check out your state at this USGS Web site: http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/LivingWith/VolcanicPast/framework.html
(Although South Carolina does not presently have volcanoes, we have granitic plutons, such as Forty Acre Rock, left from igneous forces of plate collisions long ago in our geologic history.)