Introduction
It was a typical hot sultry night in Texas. I sat in the open field with my family, as we excitedly gazed into the dark sky. This was no ordinary night. This was the Fourth of July. We watched in amazement as the fiery lights rumbled, burst, and exploded into a beautiful luminary display. There was so much excitement and energy in the air. I was captivated by the power and magnificence of this man engineered event. I share the same captivation for one of nature's most powerful events, volcanoes.
Volcanoes remind me of those same fireworks from the Fourth of July. They too rumble, burst, and explode. The fiery ejecta accelerate at tremendous speed hurling large chunks of molten rocks, huge quantities of gases and fine grained debris. They are magnificent and have tremendous energy and power. They can be both destructive and constructive. They have altered and preserved history. The eruption of Thera in 1620 BC destroyed the Minoan civilization and may have given rise to the legend of Atlantis. The ancient city of Pompeii was preserved for hundreds of years by the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79BC.
My fascination with volcanoes led me to the Living with Geological Hazards Seminar at the Houston Teachers Institute. On further study of volcanoes, I began to wonder if volcanoes existed in outer space. To my surprise, I discovered the answer is yes. Unlike volcanoes on this planet that are landforms made from the Earth, planetary volcanoes consist of much different materials. From satellite surveillance, scientists have studied strong volcanic activity on Io, one of Jupiter's moons. This unit will explore origins and characteristics of volcanoes of the Solar System.
This unit includes the following sections: Introduction (Why), Student population (Why), Teaching Strategies (How), Background (What), Lesson Activities (Evaluation), Annotated Bibliography (References), and an Appendix (Answer Key). The Background section will be the most extensive, because it will further divide into sub-topics and will introduce the scientific concepts and principles to be covered during the teaching of the unit. First topic in the background section will address the origin and characteristics of the Solar System. Next, volcanoes on Earth will be studied, followed by those on satellites of Jupiter and Saturn. Students will compare the similarities between the two kinds of volcanoes and discover what drives or provides the energy for each of them. They will identify the roles heat and plate tectonics play in the formation of active volcanoes. They will use the principle of radioactive dating to calculate the age of rocks and to infer the results for volcanic activity. Volcanoes have "erupted" periods and can remember when they last erupted.
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