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"Teaching people about the world in which we live."

Volcano Lesson plan    -  This lesson plan will be complete Oct. 15, 1998
This lesson is also available in a four day  plan.
by Lara Steele

This page contains, ready to go, all the background information you need to teach the Volcano Lesson, including overheads, handouts, quizzes, and evaluation materials. You will need a computer, printer, pens, pencils, transparencies, and other 'normal' classroom supplies. Please feel free to use the provided materials, share them, reproduce them, but make sure TerraX.org receives credit.

Objectives

• The student will be able to state the main idea of a story.
• The student will be able to define and describe the properties of two types of volcanoes, shield and cone.
• The student will be able to explain why volcanoes are important and how they affect our environment.
• The student will be able to describe the biological and geological effects of the 1980 Mt. St. Helens' eruption.
• The student will be able to label a drawing of a volcano, labeling and explaining all the major parts.

Materials

• Worksheet (one per student)
• Worksheet Answer Key
• Mount St. Helens Information sheet (one per student)
• Plate tectonics handout (No Labels)(one per student) OR
• Plate tectonics handout (With Labels) (one per student)
• Color Plate tectonics overhead (or check this one out for viewing only) or black and white (If you use the black and white version you will need to color it in ahead of time.)
• Story
• Chalk board and chalk (overhead projector and markers may be used for this instead)
• Crayons, colored pencils or markers

Outline

Day one:

1. First familiarize yourself with the information provided on our pages about volcanoes.
2. For an introduction tell the students you are going to read them a story.
3. Ask the questions at the bottom of the story.  Allow about five minutes, at most for feed back.
4. Tell the students you want them to brainstorm things that they know about volcanoes.   As they say things put them up on the board.  Expect answers like: hot, magma, lava, explosions, islands, etc.
5. Have one student write down the list and then give it to you to keep for later.
6. Give an overview of cone and shield volcanoes.
7. Explain that they are going to familiarize themselves with plate tectonics and how volcanoes are made.
8. Hand out the black and white plate tectonics handout. Pass around the crayons, colored pencils or markers.
9. Put up the transparency of the plate tectonics handout and go over the different parts with the students.
10. Have them color and label all the different parts of the handout.  You may either do this all together as a class or let them have 10 to 15 minutes to work on it then go over it as a class.  It is important that they understand how the process works.
11. Collect their handouts for grading.
12. Explain that Mount St. Helens is a volcano and explain a little bit about its location, size, and last eruption. Do not give too much information and ask the students to hold their questions till after the lesson.
13. Explain that they are going to read about the explosion and recovery of Mount St. Helens then answer some questions on what they have read.
14. What they don't have time to do in class should be assigned as home work.
15. Take five minutes to add to your brainstormed list.  This may be more effective if you sum up the class the next day in the first few minutes before you move on to your next lesson.

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