Salma Ahmed, Juliana Zivcic and Vanessa Mladenoski's volcano getting ready to explode. Photo by: Juliana Zivcic
When you think of geography class you probably groan or sigh and think about how boring it is. However, one teacher is trying to change the way students look back on Grade Nine geography. Mr. Morson wanted a fun project to wrap up the Land Formations Unit and what’s a better way to do it than building and explode your own volcano? So his third-period grade nine geography class did just that. The students had Thanksgiving weekend to pick group members and to buy the materials they wanted to use. When they came back from the weekend, they had the entire period Tuesday and Wednesday of last week to plan and build their volcanoes.
Left to right - Alyssa White, Nathan Barnicoat, Sarah Beshiri building their volcano Photo by: Mr. Morson
Left to Right - Vanessa Mladenoski, Salma Ahmed, Juliana Zivcic building their volcano Photo by: Mr. Morson
Everyone was ecstatic when Thursday came. Students were chatting among themselves predicting how their volcano would look once the baking soda and vinegar react. Many thought it would be like in the movies where “lava” would bubble and spew out of the volcano for what seems like forever. Even though some groups got lucky and the volcanoes were very active, some didn’t work as well and others not at all. Mr. Morson went around to pour whatever vinegar was left into the defective volcanoes and that seemed to do the trick. As a result, his students learned that the strength of the chemical reaction between the baking soda and the vinegar depended on how much vinegar in the volcano. The more vinegar in the volcano the more "lava" that is produced. There were a lot of “woahs!” and “that's so cools!” from everyone. Overall, detonation day went great!
Devin (left) and Simon (right) waiting for the go to put their baking soda in. Photo by:Em-Jay Nicoletti
After the volcanoes went dormant, the students carried their volcanoes to the trash bin and headed back to class. Laser News managed to pull aside A.J and Alyssia for an interview.
Laser News: What did you guys think about this project?
Alyssia: Well...I thought it was interesting how volcanoes ooze, and there’s a bunch of ways volcanoes can ooze, and do other stuff.
A.J: I found it really fun, you always see it in media like cartoons other movies and such, but you never really get to do it, especially during elementary. So I thought this was a really fun, interactive activity.
Laser News: How did you think your volcanoes would react after you put the baking soda and vinegar?
Alyssia: Well, at first they didn't blow up, but after the paper towel dissolved, and the baking soda reacts with the vinegar it exploded.
Laser News: What were your expectations for today's demonstration?
A.J: I expected it to be a lot more climactic I guess.Ours just kinda like… there wasn’t even that much foam, it just went down one side I was really expecting it to go down all the sides.
Laser News: What was your favourite part of this project?
Alyssia: My favourite part was building it because there’s a bunch of different clay you can use. You can use the drying clay. You can use the clay that doesn’t dry that well. So what I did in my group was put the coloured clay to build it, and then we used other clay that hardens and put it around.
A.J: My favourite part was also building because…. Although the building [itself] was good, I really liked doing it with my friends. Doing it alone probably would’ve been really boring; however, with a bunch friends around, cracking jokes and just kinda doing a lot of silly stuff didn't make it really boring I guess.
Overall, one would say it's safe to conclude that detonation day was a success! Everyone had a lot of fun building and making their volcanoes explode. They also learned some interesting things about volcanoes while getting to do it with their friends. I would say Mr. Morson has definitely accomplished his goal—making geography exciting for his students.