A SERVICE LEARNING PROJECT ON VOLCANOES TO PROMOTE CRITICAL THINKING AND EARTH SCIENCE LITERACY

Students in Honors Physical Geology at Louisiana State University were paired into teams to participate in instruction in 8^th grade Earth Science and 9^th grade World Geography classes in East Baton Rouge Parish Schools. Students created instructional materials and reflected on the service activity to gain a better understanding of course objectives, an appreciation of Earth science as it relates to the global community, and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility. The Service Learning (SL) project is focused on a historical volcanic eruption and consists of four parts distributed throughout the semester:

• Each SL team met with their assigned teacher early in the semester to learn about their school/students. Each individual SL student wrote a summary of what he/she saw and learned about their school/students, and how he/she will use this information in preparing for classroom instruction.
• Each individual SL student researched and wrote a short paper on a historical volcanic eruption. The report focused on Earth Science Literacy Initiative Big Idea number 8 (humans can mitigate but not control natural hazards) as well as aspects of Big Ideas 1-4 (Understanding of Earth is continuously revised, rocks provide a record of Earth history, catastrophic process produce enormous change, Earth is a dynamic planet) and 7 (earth materials provide our resources).
• Each SL team combined their research papers and created a poster and a PowerPoint presentation to be used in their Earth Science/World Geography class. Posters and presentations were peer reviewed and revised prior to use in classrooms.
• Each SL team then used the materials developed above to teach 30 minute sessions in two Earth Science classes including questions and answers. Each individual SL student then wrote a report on the team’s activities, discussion of what he/she learned about Earth science, your community, and yourself.

SL students and teachers both regarded the experience as positive. SL students indicated they gained a deeper understanding of volcanic processes/hazards and their relationship to plate tectonics and civilization as well as improved communication skills. Teachers commented that their students benefited from a presentation on a specific historic volcanic eruption as well as the opportunity to ask SL students questions about volcanoes and the college experience.