Description: Students will view a video of an eruption at Mt. Kiluea, which is located in Hawaii that occurred on July 5th to July 6th, 2007. Students will view concepts previously presented and learned such as magma, lava, crater, magma chamber, etc. Essentially, students would apply knowledge learned pertaining to volcanic eruptions (how and why they occur) while watching this video. After the video, a class discussion will be held to clarify/reinforce science concepts pertaining to volcanic eruptions and discuss students’ observations. After the class discussion, students will respond to question prompts by incorporating observations conducted while watching the video and concepts learned pertaining to volcanoes (in terms of plate tectonics).

Type of Task: Student-centered. Students apply concepts previously learned in an interactive manner and share their observations, perceptions, and ideas during the class discussion. The only conditions that teachers are controlling are the question prompts that will be given to students and showing the video.

Time Required: 50 minutes (20 minutes for the video and class discussion) (30 minutes for the question prompts)

Topics: Earth Science, Plate Tectonics, Volcanoes

Audience: Grade School Grade  6

Education Prerequisite Skills: Students that have had previous learning experiences of volcanoes will be able to successfully complete this assignment. Students that have investigated, analyzed, and studied concepts relating to volcanoes (ie: how and why they occur in relation to plate tectonics) will be able to successfully complete this assignment. Since the video demonstrates the processes that occur during a volcanic eruption, it is imperative that students possess familiarity or had sufficient learning opportunities with volcanoes (how and why they occur).

Teachers will need to have reliable internet access and have "QuickTime Player" player installed, projector or an ELMO machine to show the video. It is recommended that teachers show this video at the end of their respective plate tectonics or volcano units.

Learning Objectives: Students will explain and describe a volcanic eruption in terms of plate tectonics (ie: magma reaching the surface, volcanic eruptions result from motion of the Earth’s plates on top of molten material), participate in a class discussion sharing observations, reactions, thoughts in relation to volcanic eruptions, reflect on their experience, and create meaningful connections between concepts learned in this activity and throughout the unit to their lives.

Technical Notes: Teachers will need to be able to display videos in QuickTime (.mov) format, have Apple QuickTime 7 plugin, and a broadband connection.

Assessment: A class discussion will be utilized as an informal assessment of students’ progress towards the learning objectives. This informal assessment will also be utilized to provide clarification, assistance, feedback, etc. The discussion is designed to obtain students’ reactions, observations, and ideas pertaining to the video. Teachers can utilize the following questions: “What did you see?” “What did the lava look like?”, and “What do you think caused this eruption?” Several question prompts will assess students’ progress toward the learning goals of this activity. The questions are the following: 1. Describe how Mt. Kiluea erupted. You may include what you have learned so far about volcanoes and volcano eruptions in your response. Include drawings to help explain your answer. 2. Why do you think Mt. Kiluea erupted?  3. Name and describe one thing you would want to learn more about volcanoes after watching this video? 4. Why is it important to learn about volcanoes?