Volcanoes have received a bad rap recently, especially if the US Geological Survey is to receive “stimulus” funding to monitor and investigate volcanoes. According to the Governor of Louisiana funding “something called ‘volcano monitoring’ is an example of questionable funding in the appropriation bill.

Would you want a volcano in your backyard?

But the mayor of Vancouver, Washington begs to differ, and points out to the Governor of Louisiana that our volcano is active, and still rumbles, and indeed they would want the USGS to be on the watch.

Actually the USGS is involved in many important monitoring activities including volcanoes, earthquakes, droughts, floods, wildfires, and others. Perhaps it needs even more funding.

Several years ago on of my graduate students (DeAnn Peterson) designed an amazing unit of teaching entitled “What if you had a volcano in your backyard?” Her idea was to create a context for an inquiry project that was based on lived-experiences.

Here is her rationale for this investigation:

Science education in this modern world of high information availability must be an inquiry based exercise. Science, itself, must be defined as a verb, an action, and a method of looking at the world. And when the world, with all of its uniqueness and exceptions to the “rules” is readily available through the Internet, simple memorization of facts can become useless. Student must use their brainpower for finding the threads that connect and related all things. In this study of volcanoes, the Mt. St. Helen’s example is used to show the power and the magnitude of a volcano; the devastation of all forms of life that occur following a blast. The lesson intent is to explore how a volcano affects more than just geology of the area. The example is used to show how life in a devastated area reforms and rejuvenates. The students are invited to put themselves into the vicinity of a modern day active volcano and discover how their life and their world around them might change. Even though this is intended as an earth science unit, the interconnectedness of the threads that connect all things are woven together by teaching geography, geology, chemistry, biology, weather, history, and even social studies just by studying a volcano.

Not only should volcanoes be monitored by the USGS, but they provide a powerful context to design a teaching unit based on real events that effect real people. Peterson understood this, and developed a powerful unit of teaching. Perhaps the misconception that the Governor has about the value of monitoring natural disasters can be a lesson underscoing the challenge that we have as science teachers.