Applicability
Skill areas: Science, Earth, Impacts, Hazards
Ages: 9-11 yrs old
Grade level: 4th, 5th, and 6th
Volcanoes - Part 2
Students build different sized volcanoes with different forces and predict the effects on land that each volcano will have.
Learning Objectives
Play with the parameters such as height, width, and amount of lava to predict and test the effects of different sized volcanoes on the earth around it.
Guiding ideas
Understanding the relationship between natural hazards, like volcanoes, and their effects on the world. Treat this as a simulation, not as a direct representation.
Next Generation Science Standards:
- 4-ESS3-2 Earth and Human Activity
“Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans.”
Student activities
This activity requires students to have the Code Connection app open and running with their Minecraft Education Edition. This is the second part to the Volcano Lesson and should follow the Volcanoes - Part 1 lesson plan.
This activity consists of 2 parts:
Predict the effects of volcanoes
Have each student place different types of volcanoes in different areas adding a sign with their name next to each one. Before igniting them (or filling them with lava), have students walk around the Minecraft world and predict what effect on the Earth around the volcano the volcano will have.
You can use Volcano Worksheet #2 to guide this exercise.
Lead a discussion about the predictions that the students made, then allow each student to ignite their volcanoes. Have the students go through each volcano again, and compare their predictions with what actually happened (using Volcano Worksheet #2).
Lead a discussion about the most surprising effects of the volcanoes in the class.
Change parameters of volcanoes to cause different effects
Challenge all of your students to cause their volcanoes to have both the greatest effect and the least effect by only changing the parameters in their algorithms.
Performance Expectations
Intended outcomes:
- Predicting the effects of natural hazards based on knowledge of shapes and sizes of volcanoes.
- Compare and contrast predictions with data.
- Manipulate parameters to change the effects of code.