Volcano Blog by Tom Pering
  • Blog
  • UV Cameras
  • Publications
  • Slug Calculator
  • About Me

Using a fictitious volcanic crisis for an assessment in a volcanology module

18/1/2021

 
I am always looking for ways to make teaching and assessments more than an essay or exam, but also to try and make these things a bit more world relevant. I may have an unfair advantage here, with a fantastic subject to teach like volcanology! Last academic year I started, alongside colleagues, a new third year module in 'Applied Volcanology'. In this module, we covered three main aspects:
  1. Volcanic Science
  2. Volcano Monitoring
  3. Decision Making
When thinking about the subject of volcanology as a whole, we wanted to cover the core science around why volcanoes behave the way they do, how we then monitor them, but then also what we do with that information. What is the most likely event given observed precursor activity? What should an alert level be? What should be communicated to the public or decision makers? It is this third aspect which we wanted to focus on for an assignment. Therefore the 'Volcano Challenge Week' was coined. 

At the beginning of the Volcano Challenge Week (which was actually ten days in the end), the students were thrown into an ongoing, but fictitious, volcanic crisis (at a real volcano). Every two or three days, new monitoring information was released, such as gas composition and amount, seismicity, deformation, and overflight data. From this progressive release of information the students were then asked to write a risk report with an assessment of most likely eruption scenarios, and if possible their probabilities. Given the uniqueness of this assessment, in comparison to those that the students may be used to, they were supported with a specific lecture on hazard assessment and decision making, but also a seminar. In this seminar students were given a short scenario, mimicking the Volcano Challenge week but for a different volcano, and using their expert opinions to gauge what most likely hazards would be, and also think about setting alert levels (see Figure below). 
Picture
A few example questions, aimed at getting the students to think about likely hazards, extra monitoring that might help, and what alert level might be needed.
Unfortunately, initial plans were for all of this to be in person (scheduled for April/May 2020), however, the content was also quite suited to an online setting using students in breakout groups to discuss the various ongoing and changing fictitious volcanic crisis events.

Comments are closed.
    Volcano Blog Logo

    RSS Feed

    Share this page

    Archives

    August 2022
    May 2022
    January 2021
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    October 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    January 2017
    October 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011

An informative blog for anyone interested about all things volcano related!
  • Blog
  • UV Cameras
  • Publications
  • Slug Calculator
  • About Me