In our preliminary study of geology, STEM Lab students have really enjoyed learning some basic information about volcanoes. We have become more familiar with earth's structure; geothermal heat in earth's inner core; movement of tectonic plates; volcano vocabulary; types of volcanoes; eruptions facts and complications from volcanic eruptions.
Students learned to contrast and compare active, dormant and extinct volcanoes. Ask your student which is the "couch potato" type of volcano. What about the "hot tempered" one? Students asked a lot of questions, and they really expanded their knowledge about volcanoes.
The main activity for our volcano study was our "Volcano Workshop," in which students actually built a model of a volcano with a plastic soda bottle and flour/salt dough. The models "dried" for a week, and the students "erupted" them during the second geology lab. This was a perfect example of how chemicals (gases, heat) combine in real volcanoes to create eruptions. (Due to student requests, instructions and recipes for this activity are below).
Students were able to see firsthand accounts and video of eruptions and volcanology in National Geographic's "Volcano -- Nature's Fury". Several commented that they might enjoy being a volcanologist some day! How cool is that??
VOLCANO WORKSHOP INSTRUCTIONS
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Volcano Dough Recipe
4 cups flour
1 cup salt
2 tsp. vegetable oil
2 cups water (more as needed to form dough)
Roll dough out into small, 1 inch thin spheres. Place them around an empty 2 - liter soda bottle that has been covered loosely with aluminum foil. (Aluminum foil should help give bottle the shape of a composite {mountain shaped} volcano). Use water to seal the dough pieces if necessary. Allow volcano to dry for several days.
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Volcano Eruption Recipe
1 squirt of dish washing liquid
1 cup water
2 drops of red food coloring
4 heaping spoonfuls of baking soda
1 cup vinegar
Place volcano model on large pan or cooking sheet. Squirt soap liquid into bottom of volcano bottle chamber. In small beaker, combine water, food coloring and soda. Pour into volcano chamber using a funnel. Next, pour vinegar into funnel. Remove funnel, and watch eruption begin.
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| Things are ready for the volcano workshop! |
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| Ingredients for the volcano dough. |
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| Ella and Grant carefully measure the salt. |
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| Audrey mixes the dough, with Grand and Carson supervising. |
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| Mrs. Sweet, Cole and Janeyah mold the volcano. |
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| Adding water helps the "plates" stay together. |
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| Hayden and Taylor follow the recipe. |
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| Ava and Julia mix the dough. |
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| Kensley is not sure about the smell of the dough! |
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| Abby had to stand up to get a better handle on the dough! |
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| Emily watches Mrs. Sweet closely! |
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| Kylee kneading and pounding! |
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| Mrs. Jackson's finished model. |
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| Sydney is doing a great job! |
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| Nick and AJ working hard. |
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| These girls did a great job! |
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| Abbie and Luke working together! |
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| 4th grade girls rock! |
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| Tyler having some fun! |
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| Chandler showing the guys how to do this! |
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| Carson helping with some of the necessary ingredients! |
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| Flether stood up to stir! |
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| Peyton and Peyton work on the dough. |
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| Austin adds a cup of salt to the dough. |
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| Joan places pieces of dough on the model. |
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| A bunch of volcanoes -- 19 in all! |
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| Lydia carefully adds the vegetable oil. |
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| Emily measures the salt, as her 6th grade lab group watches. |
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| India measures the flour. |
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| Taylor sculpts the top of the model. |
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| Morgyn tries to stir the thick dough. |
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| Emily adds the oil to the mixture. |
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| Lucy and Lanie work together. |
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| Jessie stirs food coloring into the magma. |
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| Zack measures the baking soda. |
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| Addelin and Sydney "feel" the eruption! |
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| Dylan likes the feel of it! |
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| The pre-1st students learn the "ACTIVE" volcano dance! |
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| A "DORMANT" volcano is sleeping, just waiting, to erupt! |
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| Lily adds water. |
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| Avery pours the magma into the chamber. |
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| Philip is excited! |
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| Pre-1st thinks the eruption lab is great! |
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| Will demonstrates an "extinct" volcano during our Volcano dance. |
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| Max measures the baking soda. |
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| Gracie pours in the magma. |
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| John David carefully pours the baking soda mixture |
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| Fifth graders give the volcano eruption a thumbs up! |
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| This feels really cool! |
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| Brady pours in the baking soda mixture for the 6th grade lab students. |
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| Grant measures the baking soda. |
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| Carly watches closely as Mary Kate pours in the "magma". |
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| Wow!! |
Sasha pours in the magma for this 2nd grade group!
