Paper Volcanoes Laboratory

Abstract

Earth science and natural disaster are relevant topic in the frame of geosciences education; volcanic eruptions, wildfires, flooding , tornados, are few examples of natural disasters which are regularly in the news and grab kids' attention.

When we come to volcanoes, Italy, is a country with 6 active volcanoes such as mount Etna and Stromboli which are very popular for their spectacular eruptions as often pictured on social media and TV.

The National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) is a government research institute which its Third Stream is focused on public, media, educators engagement to be realized by conducting a range of experiments within public events ( e.g. “Night of Researchers”, "OpenScience day"), promoting activities in in-house museum and producing educational material.

While there is a range of educational resources to communicate natural hazards for scholar age children, when we explored educational material, for pre-scholar kids (3-5years) we found limited material available.

To contribute in filling this gap we have been exploring playful approaches to be used to let kids familiarize with volcanoes . In fact , play not only has an unique impact in human adaptation and is able to transform behaviour, but for children is the main way to learn. It creates iterative connection with environments and meanings.

We focused on " object play" approach and identified two activities: one based on creating an origami volcano and the second as a coloring volcano landscape.

The paper volcanoes laboratory has tested in one school (2017) and within two public engagement event s (2016 and 2018) total of 180 children (3-5 years).

Following the positive feedback and comments from educators, colleagues and parents we have realized a structured toolkit to be used as educational tool to engage and get