HS VOLCANO STUDY

Nineth Graders Study Historic Volcanoes

Ninth graders at North Shore High School in Mrs. Laura DiLallo’s class recently learned that volcanoes are not always only big cone-shaped mountains that spew out lava in giant explosions. They researched that volcanos come in all shapes and sizes with varying degrees of activity as well notoriety. 

Student Analiese Giambrone said, "I had to challenge myself to make this volcano and figure out a way to make it look semi-realistic. I had to cut Styrofoam in size order and place them on top of each other and then cover it in clay to give it more of a realistic look. I also had to paint the volcano brown."

The Earth Science class had the opportunity to choose a volcano from a list of notable eruptions in history and conduct research, experiment, and gather facts and information. To culminate their studies, each student either alone or with a partner made a presentation to their classmates in the form of a poster, video, or model of their volcano. Mrs. DiLallo said each presentation had to contain, “The type of volcano studied, the location or country where the volcano erupted, and its elevation of summit (i.e., height).” She added “My students had to summarize the important eruption dates and details of those eruptions and provide a volcano diagram representing the tectonic plate movement that formed the volcano.”
Student Braedan Schoenhofen said, "Mt. Krakatoa blew up two-thirds of the island it was on in 1883, and produced the loudest sound ever recorded. It blew 6 cubic miles of Earth, 50 miles into the air."

On June 6, 2022, the ninth graders visited their peer’s volcano projects and asked them respective questions. Each student group expertly communicated the facts, events, and characteristics of their historic volcanoes. It was apparent that each of the students engaged in passionate learning and critical thinking while having fun studying notorious volcanoes in history.

Student Darren Friedlin concluded by saying, “Have a safety kit ready and an escape plan ready. When ash and lava are coming everywhere, you need to be ready to leave fast.”

Article and photos by Shelly Newman