EXPANDING K-12 TEACHER AND STUDENT UNDERSTANDING OF EXPLOSIVE ARC VOLCANISM THROUGH THE EARTH2CLASS PROGRAM

Most pre-college teachers and students have general understandings of volcanoes, but lack significant details about what drives the research of volcanologists and about the importance of their discoveries. Regular Earth2Class Workshops (E2C) on Saturdays mornings at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, where pre-college teachers and scientists meet research scientists, provide one effective strategy for enhancing their understanding of explosive Arc Volcanism. .

Susanne Straub is a Lamont Associate Research Professor in the Division of Geochemistry with three decades of research in explosive arc volcanism. Michael Passow is an Adjunct Lamont Associate Research Scientist who has taught for 44 years in middle and high school classrooms. He originated the E2C workshops and has hosted more than 200 Saturday programs since 1998.

Pre-pandemic, E2C programs were open to K-12 teachers and students in the New York metropolitan area who could come to the Lamont campus in Palisades, NY for a full-day Saturday session at a nominal fee of $15. In the past year and a half, E2C workshops have been offered through a free zoom format, thereby expanding to include any interested K-12 teachers and students across the country to learn about the range of research being conducted at Lamont. These Zoom programs are now recorded and available through a YouTube website (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCadTrEtrumYSGOEcfMB4h-w).

Straub has thus far presented three E2C Workshops. First, in November 2019, she discussed her investigations in "Testing the Slab Connection in the Trans Mexican Volcanic Belt." During the 2020-21 academic year, she provided two volcanology-based programs, explaining "Why are Arc Magmas s Rich in Silica? and "Is there a Link between Explosive volcanism and the Earth's Climate?" Straub will present her next program on the Saturday after this conference, exploring "Be-10 in Volcanic Emissions." She will provide one more talk on 22 April 2022, about "Why are Arc Magmas so silicic? -- telling the missing tale."

In our presentation, we will provide more details about tehse E2C workshops, including how explosive arc volcanism influences past, current, and future human habitats, and how cutting-edge research results can be integrated into the pre-college curriculum.