Published on April 21st, 2010 | by What2Learn0
ICT and the Icelandic Volcano
Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted on 20th March 2010 after a period of growing seismic activity. The resultant ash cloud caused the stoppage of flights across the Atlantic Ocean and all around Europe.
The following resources have been developed to help ICT teachers take advantage of this huge news event and will develop student knowledge of how ICT is much more than the use of desktop computers in classrooms. They will understand how technology is being used to help people to monitor the eruption and the ash cloud, and to enable people to cope with the ban on flights. The resources provided should last students in Years 7-8 two lessons.
The following links to webcams looking at the Eyjafjallajokull volcano. Students can take a screenshot every few minutes and add them to PowerPoint slides to produce a time-lapse representation of how things are changing over time.
Volcano webcam 1
Volcano webcam 2
Volcano webcam 3
Discussion point: Get students to discuss the advantage of using webcams to monitor volcanic activity in this way.
The worksheet below was created to develop student knowledge of how ICT is being used to monitor volcanic activity and to help people cope with the problems being caused by the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull.
This worksheet should be seen as the starting point for the work produced. Students should supplement this by playing the learning games below and adding information about what they have learned to their presentation. They could also go on to do more open research on the topic.
Interactive learning games
The following learning games will develop student knowledge of how ICT can be used to monitor and cope with volcanic activity. The best way to play them is to unlock the new topic ‘The Icelandic Volcano’ by logging in to your free What2Learn account and entering share code 860932. This will mean that student attainment is recorded and rewarded in our award-winning system.
Alternatively, click the links to play the game without recording and rewarding scores.
ICT and the Icelandic Earthquake
- Counting in binary
- Spreadsheet Task: Tornado Valley
- Working with tables: Olympic Venues (Functional Skills ICT)