Volcanoes - an introduction

This lesson, aimed at the top end of KS3 or GCSE covers an introduction to volcanos. Students begin by contemplating what they already know about volcanoes - both in terms of their visual recognition and key terms they have heard - before cementing their knowledge on the key features of a volcano. After this, we move onto the distribution of volcanos around the world. Students analyse a world map of global volcano distribution before a diferentiated task supporting geographical locational descriptions. Students also learn the difference between active, dormant, and extinct volcanoes, get practice in categorising a volcano according to clues given, and ‘become the marker’ when they judge 3 possible answers to the question “Explain what volcanos are.” This later task is great for building exam writing skills, as the students discuss what elements make good answers at GCSE level.