Hawaiian Lava Flows
In the Lava Flow Challenge your group is tasked with the job of helping a town near an active volcano develop a system for determining if and when they should evacuate during a volcanic eruption.
Your job is to
Before you begin designing your investigation, view the following videos that show slow and fast lava flows.
Slow Lava Flow
Fast Lava Flow
Read the following articles about volcanoes with a partner. Your purpose for reading is to better understand the impacts of living near an active volcano. As you read, take notes that will help you form an explanation of how volcanoes impact people. Be sure to put the notes in your own words and not just copy directly from the text.
Meet up with another group and discuss the notes that you took.
Be prepared to...
Begin writing your explanation of how volcanoes impact people who live near them.
In your explanation be sure to include
Trade what you have written with a partner and proofread for errors. Discuss your writing and give guidance for improving. Return to the Success Criteria and check to see that you have met all parts.
When engineering the solution to a problem there are always goals and limitations that affect how we reach those goals. They are called criteria and constraints.
Criteria - things that must be satisfied in order to achieve a goal
Constraints - factors that limit how you will go about achieving your goal
Meet with the group whose procedures you used and discuss the following
Have you met the success criteria?
If given the chance to redo this assignment what would you change about your procedures?
The follow album is a sample of volcano impacts in Northern Arizona, USA.
MS-ESS2-1. - Develop a model to describe the cycling of Earth's materials and the flow of energy that drives this process.
Introduction
Materials
Procedures
Discuss the following with your team:
Hotspots form chains of volcanoes in the middle of tectonic plates. Use the following activity to demonstrate how these chains can occur.
Procedure
Discuss the following with your team:
A Hotspot Beneath the United States
MS-ESS3-2 Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.
MS-ETS1-1 - Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.
On March 11, 2011 an earthquake that registered 9.0 on the Richter scale struck off the coast of Northern Japan. It generated a tsunami that killed tens of thousands of people and also started a nuclear disaster that is still impacting the region to this day.
MS-ESS3-2 Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.
MS-ETS1-1 - Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.