Teaching About Volcanoes

by Ms. Nancy Lewis, grade 8, Creekwood Middle School, Kingwood, TX


Photo mosaic by Matthew Axvig.

Ms. Nancy Lewis, a teacher in Texas, assigned a volcano project while her class was learning about volcanoes in class. She asked the students what kind of a project on volcanoes they would like to do. They wanted to build a mobile, because one of the students had mentioned that the shape of the hanger looked like a volcano. Her class then brain-stormed as to what would be covered in the project, so that she might set up grading criteria. The two classes decided that the type and location of the volcano was important as well as the type of lava produced. Eruption types, volcanic classifications, and resulting casualty data was also included in there research.

Research began with a visit to their library. The class used the tenet system in the library to hook up to VolcanoWorld. They explored VolcanoWorld homepage and found the "Ask a Volcanologist" section. The students decided to ask a few questions. The class also searched through other sites that Volcano World suggested. The students were excited to find that they could use the World Wide Web to get information from all over the world.

The students used class time as well as home time to find more information about volcanoes. Many brought web sites in that they had found as they were searching. The students really enjoyed looking up information on-line instead of just in a book. The students found out that there is a great deal of resource material in the world.

This project was such a success, that the students went back to the world wide web sites to do research on minerals.

Ms. Lewis writes:" Thanks Volcano World for being such a great site for the students to use and getting my group excited about being on-line. Since this project they have become science mentors to a group of 5th graders in Oxnard, California."

Students in first photo:

4th Row: Megan Smith, Elizabeth Jones, Josh Elhers, Heather Purcell

3rd Row: KC Hormann, Zaed Billah, Simon Erickson, TJ Lawrence,David Mitchell, Nancy Eichhorst, Shelli Sticker, Kathryn Wilson

2nd Row: Laura Mashlan, Ania Aksan, Steven Rogers, Patty Welch, Mike Stanton

1st Row: Greg Grizzakki, Marle Calcote, Kristen Shelton, Laura Liptak, Almee Bertrand, Brain South, Cody Sims, Chris Krueger

Here's a closer look at some of the volcanoes:


Steve, Patty, and Mike with their volcanoes.


David, Nancy, Selli, and Marle with their volcanoes.


Laura and Aimee with their volcanoes 


   To VolcanoWorld           To Volcano Models