Reply To: Year 5 (Grade 4) Volcanoes Inquiry

[Jenny Toerien Keymaster]

[Email from primary Geography teacher]

Hi Jenny,

Hope you are enjoying half term and so sorry to e-mail in a holiday. I am stumbling a bit with the masses of information for a Year 5 FOSIL Inquiry. We spoke about the initial question and I have taken time to look through the resources on the website, …[and this is] where I am so far….We have covered about 3 lessons as the first couple of lessons are atlas based.

1. KWL sheet to introduce topic.
2. structure of the earth
3. features of a volcano

I am aware that there are very few lessons left before Christmas and the following still needs to be covered.

1. What happens at the boundaries between the Earth’s plates?
2. Locate a range of famous volcanoes and find out some key facts, including when the volcanoes last erupted.
3. What happens when a volcano erupts?
4. Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of living near a volcano.

My question to you is, if I teach for another couple of weeks and cover number 1 – 3, could number 4 be a mini inquiry of just two weeks. After finding out about a range of famous volcanos I could ask the question ‘If you had to choose a volcano to live by, which would it be?’ They would only be able to choose from the ones tudies: Mauna Loa, Etna, St Helens, Vesuvius, Popocatepetyl. I was thinking they could feed back their findings verbally as this will save time.  I’m still not convinced there will be enough time to do it properly. I think next year I will have to start the topic at the start of term and give it longer than the usual 6 weeks. Any thoughts or suggestions will be gratefully received.