Year 12 IB Geographers Teach Year 9 about the Hazards of Volcanic Eruptions

Of course, knowledge is transferred in many directions, not only from teacher to student. We teachers learn from our students every day, and it is wonderful to create opportunities for students to learn from each other.

Last week, Year 12 IB Geographers Bat-Anand T. and Yi Matteo Z. had the opportunity to teach what they had learned to our middle school students.

Year 9 students are currently learning about plate tectonics, earthquakes, and volcanoes during their Geography lessons. The HL students of IB Geography are also covering similar topics right now. These students had to research and create a presentation about some of the hazards of volcanic eruptions, such as lahars and pyroclastic flows. The two Year 12 Geographers showed the Year 9 students diagrams and videos, along with explanations of how these events occur and what their disastrous consequences are. They also presented two case studies: the lahar following the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines and the pyroclastic flow from the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington, U.S.A.

The Year 9 students were great listeners and asked thoughtful questions, including what warning signs volcanoes give before an eruption. They will learn about this and more during their Geography lessons with Mr. Ferguson, who has already introduced them to a case study on Mount Vesuvius.

It is important that our students are reflective, so I asked Bat-Anand and Yi Matteo to consider what went well during their presentation and what they would do differently next time. Two lessons they took away from the experience are that one needs to be well-prepared and that the way information is presented should differ for younger students compared to their peers in high school. In the end, it seemed like a valuable exchange of knowledge.

Mr. Opas – Geography Teacher