Volcanoes

Read about the different kinds of volcanoes or lava from Science Trek's website and compare the photographs with the text to aid understanding. Discuss the differences. Have students illustrate their own versions of each type.

Draw and label a diagram of the interior of one or more volcanoes. Describe what role these parts play in the workings of a volcano.

Select a historic volcano eruption and write a myth explaining the cause. Explain that the scientific understanding that we have today is not the basis for mythological stories, but that explanations were based on fictional monsters, heroes, heroines, and folklore. Work details about the location into the piece that impacts the myth, such as geographic features, animals or cultural attributes.

Using a map of the Ring of Fire, find information on various volcanoes along the Pacific Rim. Count them as each one is studied. Print pictures or make drawings to revisit and count. Push pins and tags attached to the map would be another alternative.

Using this table from Oregon State, select ten U.S. volcanoes, round their respective elevations to the nearest hundred. Compare and order volcanoes in terms of elevations.

Using scale to determine measurement, create a 3D model of the layers of the earth using clay or other medium. As another option, have students research sizes of volcanoes and create models of volcanoes using scale and photographs available.

Designs can be conveyed through sketches, drawings, or physical models. These representations are useful in communicating ideas for a problem’s solutions to other people. Examples of human influence on the land could include planting trees after a burn, protecting farm fields from erosion, or keeping plastic trash out of waterways.

Maps show where things are located. One can map the shapes and kinds of land and water in any area.

Examples of events and timescales could include volcanic explosions and earthquakes, which happen quickly, and erosion of rocks, which occurs slowly.

A variety of hazards result from natural processes (e.g., earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions). Hazards cannot be eliminated, but their impacts can be reduced.

Testing a solution involves investigating how well it performs under a range of likely conditions.

Examples of solutions could include designing an earthquake resistant building and improving monitoring of volcanic activity.

The locations of mountain ranges, deep ocean trenches, ocean floor structures, earthquakes, and volcanoes occur in patterns. Most earthquakes and volcanoes occur in bands that are often along the boundaries between continents and oceans. Major mountain chains form inside continents or near their edges. Maps can help locate the different land and water feature areas of Earth.

Maps can include topographic maps of Earth's land and ocean floor, as well as maps of the locations of mountains, continental boundaries, volcanoes, and earthquakes.

Local, regional, and global patterns of rock formations reveal changes over time due to earth forces, such as earthquakes or volcanoes. The presence and location of certain fossil types indicate the order in which rock layers were formed.

There are three classifications of rocks produced within the rock cycle: sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous.

Examples of factors include human activities (such as fossil fuel combustion and changes in land use) and natural processes (such as changes in incoming solar radiation and volcanic activity). Examples of evidence can include tables, graphs, and maps of global and regional temperatures; atmospheric levels of gases such as carbon dioxide and methane; and natural resource use.

Mapping the history of natural hazards in a region, combined with an understanding of related geologic forces, can help forecast the locations and likelihoods of future events.

Emphasis is on how some natural hazards, such as volcanic eruptions and severe weather, are preceded by phenomena that allow for reliable predictions. Others, such as earthquakes, occur suddenly, and are not yet predictable. Examples of natural hazards can be taken from interior processes (such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions), surface processes (such as mass wasting and tsunamis), or severe weather events (such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods). Examples of data can include the locations, magnitudes, and frequencies of the natural hazards. Examples of mitigation strategies can be global (such as satellite systems to monitor hurricanes or forest fires) or local (such as building basements in tornado-prone regions or reservoirs to mitigate droughts).

Emphasis is on how these resources are limited and typically non-renewable, and how their distributions are changing as a result of depletion. Examples of uneven distributions of resources as a result of past processes include but are not limited to petroleum (locations of the burial of organic marine sediments and subsequent geologic traps), metal ores (locations of past volcanic and hydrothermal activity associated with subduction zones), and soil (locations of active weathering and/or deposition of rock).

The planet's systems interact over scales that range from microscopic to global in size, and they operate over fractions of a second to billions of years.

Emphasis is on how processes change Earth's surface at time and spatial scales that can be large or small, and how many geoscience processes (such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and meteor impacts) usually behave gradually but are punctuated by catastrophic events. These interactions have shaped Earth's history and will determine its future.

All Earth processes are the result of energy flowing and matter cycling within and among the planet's systems. This energy is derived from the sun and Earth's hot interior. The energy that flows and matter that cycles produce chemical and physical changes in Earth's materials and living organisms.

Emphasis is on how analyses of rock formations and fossils are used to establish the relative ages of major events in Earth's history. Examples of major events could range from being very recent to very old. Examples can include the formation of mountain chains and ocean basins, the evolution or extinction of particular living organisms, or large volcanic eruptions.