Science comes to life for FSCH students

Fort Scott Christian Heights fifth- and sixth-grade teacher Vickie Shead helps sixth grade student Lil Hall funnel baking soda into Hall's composite volcano. After adding the baking soda, vinegar was used to make the volcano erupt. Hall used papier maché to create her volcano. She also added red food coloring to make the lava look more realistic. Tribune photo/Rayma Silvers

A local group of fifth and sixth graders gained up-close knowledge of how volcanoes work on Wednesday.

Fort Scott Christian Heights fifth and sixth grade teacher Vickie Shead not only taught her students about volcanoes in class, but she also required them to do some research on their own time. After they completed their research, the students were instructed to build working volcanoes and bring them to class.

Each student was given a rubric, a scoring tool for subjective assessments, which clearly explained what was expected of them and how many points each item was worth.

The students were required to choose one of three types of volcanoes -- a shield volcano, a composite volcano or a a cinder cone volcano. After selecting his or her desired volcano, each student researched what that specific type of volcano was made up of, how it formed, specific examples of famous volcanoes that fall into that category and any other information that the students wanted to include in a presentation to the class.

The next step for the students was to begin formulating construction ideas. Each fifth or sixth grader had to plan the fabrication of his or her volcano. This part of the process required much thought for the students. One reason that designing the volcanoes was a challenge for the students is Shead's requirement that each volcano must be able to erupt.

Although the majority of the students chose to build composite volcanoes, which are created from many eruptions that sometimes recur over many years, two of the students chose to create the shield and cinder cone volcanoes.

The shield volcano, which is composed completely of lava, did not form a high peak; its contour remained semi-flat. When fifth grade student Eric Page dropped the necessary ingredients into his shield volcano, the eruption was somewhat mild compared to that of the other volcanoes. Shead explained to the group of students that Paige's model was very accurate in regard to the way that it erupted.

Justice Weldon, another student in Shead's class, chose to create the cinder cone volcano, which is built from small lava fragments called cinders.

The students used vinegar, dish soap and baking soda in order to make the volcanoes erupt. Many of the students also added food coloring to make the foaming eruption look more like lava, and one student even added red decorative baking sprinkles to achieve the same effect.

The volcanoes were made out of many different materials. Some of the students used papier maché, a couple of the students used styrofoam, one student used aluminum foil, and another student sculpted his volcano out of clay.

Several students' parents attended on Wednesday afternoon to witness the eruptions of the volcanoes.