SATROSPHERE SCIENCE CENTRE
Volcano Classroom Activities
These materials are designed to help you explore volcanoes further in the classroom.
This guide provides examples of activities you can carry out with pupils prior to a
visit to Satrosphere and ideas for ways you can explore volcanoes if you have used a
visit to Satrosphere as a starting point for a classroom project. We hope you find
these materials useful. Why not start by determining what pupils already know
about volcanoes? What would they like to know? How can we find out more about
volcanoes?
Activity 1: Build Your Own Volcano
Discuss what a volcano looks like, the shape and what pupils think they are made of.
Use paper mache and recycling materials to build a volcano that can be erupted with
vinegar and bicarbonate of soda over and over again. You can make this a longer
project by giving each group a different type of volcano to replicate, for exampleshield volcano, cinder cone, composite or stratovolcanoes. You could also look at
volcanic features like calderas and geysers and consider how you could build models
of these. The following website is a good source of information:
http://library.thinkquest.org/17457/volcanoes/types.php
Activity 2: Dissecting the Earth
Use peaches to represent the earth and have pupils examine half a peach (with
stone) and identify the various layers as if they were labelling the layers of the earth,
pupils could even attach labels using push pins or tooth picks. In addition to naming
the layers they could also label what they are made from and the state of matter
found in each layer. The following website is a good source of information:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/structure-of-the-earth/9117.html
Activity 3: Plate Tectonics and Mud Pies
The Earth’s crust is broken up into large plates that float on the mantle below. It is
because of these plates that we get earthquakes and volcanoes. Below is a map that
shows the plate boundaries; print and cut these plates out to make a jig-saw type
puzzle for pupils to solve. The red dots on the map represent volcanoes. Can the
pupils make any observations about where most volcanoes form? Can they explain
how some volcanoes seem to be in the middle of plates?
To demonstrate how the plate boundaries fit together we can replicate plate
boundaries on a small scale by making mud pies. This will take at least 2 days.
You will need: 2 cups of soil, a large bowl, water, a spoon, a baking sheet
What to do:
1. Mix soil and water in a bowl until you have a thick mud.
2. Spread the mud onto baking sheet and set in the sun (or near a radiator) until dry.
3. Push down around the sides of the dried mud.
The surface should crack so that you have jagged edges that all fit together just like
the continental plates!
Activity 4: Build a Geyser!
You will need: a large coffee tin or deep bowl, water, funnel that is as tall as your
container, 1 bendy straw
What to do:
Fill the container with water, set the funnel in the
container with wide end at the bottom and place the
bendy bit of the straw under the wide end of the
funnel. Blow into the end of the straw.
As the air moves upward towards the stem of the funnel it forces water out the thin
end of the funnel. Geysers are inverted funnel shaped cracks in the earth that have
become filled with water. If the crack extends deep enough then the water heats to
the point of boiling and steam forces its way to the surface causing the geyser to
erupt once sufficient pressure has built up.
Activity 5: Make an Underwater Volcano
Heat makes fluids less dense so that they will rise through
more dense (cooler) fluids of the same type, for example,
air, water or magma. This rising and falling gives rise to
convection currents that move the continental plates.
You will need: A large glass jar, a small glass bottle, water
(hot and cold), red food colouring, string
What to do:
1. Tie string around the neck of the small glass bottle to
make a handle which can be used to lower it into the large jar.
2. Fill the large jar ¾ full with cool tap water (can dye light blue if desired) and the
small bottle to the brim with hot water which has been coloured red.
3. Carefully lower the bottle into the jar and observe what happens.
The hot water should rise to the surface of the glass jar resembling an underwater
volcano. If your small bottle has a large mouth like the beaker in the picture above
you can cover the top with cling film and secure with a rubber band (as in picture).
Once the bottle has been lowered into larger jar, the cling film can be punctured
with a knife or scissors.
Get the pupils to think about what this resembles besides a volcano, get them
thinking along the lines of smoke rising as it is the same principle.
Activity 6: Build a Thermometer!
Most materials will expand and take up more space when they get warmer and they
will do this in a very predictable way! This is how a thermometer works – liquid
(traditionally mercury but now alcohol or water) will move up and down a thin tube
when it is heated and cooled. A scale along the tube indicates the temperature.
What you need: Clear straw, Card, Scissors, Cold (room temp) water and food
colouring, A glass bottle, Modelling clay, Colouring pens or pencils
What to do:
1. Pour cold water into the bottle until it is about ¾ full and add a few drops of food
colouring (this makes it much easier to see!).
2. Put the straw into the bottle so that it rests a few cm under the water. Seal around
the straw with the clay making sure that it is an air tight seal.
3. Blow gently into the straw – the water will rise up. Stop when
the water reaches about ½ way up the straw.
4. Cut a slit 1 cm from the top and 1 cm from the bottom of the
card (as shown to the right) and slide it over the straw.
5. Mark with a black pen the level of the water in the straw
(normal or room temperature).
Example Card
6. Put the thermometer in a warm place – maybe by a radiator – the heat will make
the air in the bottle expand which will in turn push on the water causing the level in
the straw to rise. Mark the new warm level with a red pen.
7. Put the thermometer in a cold place – like a refrigerator – the air in the bottle will
cool and contract and as it does this it will suck the water back down the straw.
Mark the new cold level with a blue pen.
8. Compare thermometers with classmates.