1. Teacher Guide
This lesson is designed to teach kids to ask a critical thinking question that you can’t just put into a search box to solve. To do that, we encourage them with smaller questions that search can help them answer. Make sure that you read the notes for each slide: they not only give you teaching tips but also provide answers and hints so you can help the kids if they are having trouble.
Remember, you can always send feedback to the Bing in the Classroom team at You can learn more about the program at bing.com/classroom and follow the daily lessons on our Partners In Learning site.
Want to extend today’s lesson? Consider using Skype in the Classroom to arrange for your class to chat with another class in today’s location. And if you are using Windows 8, you can also use the Bing apps to learn more about this location and topic; the Travel and News apps in particular make great teaching tools.
Nell Bang-Jensen is a teacher and theater artist living in Philadelphia, PA. Her passion for arts education has led her to a variety of roles including developing curriculum for Philadelphia Young Playwrights and teaching at numerous theaters and schools around the city. She works with playwrights from ages four to ninety on developing new work and is especially interested in alternative literacies and theater for social change. A graduate of Swarthmore College, she currently works in the Artistic Department of the Wilma Theater and, in addition to teaching, is a freelance actor and dramaturg. In 2011, Nell was named a Thomas J. Watson Fellow and spent her fellowship year traveling to seven countries studying how people get their names.
This lesson is designed to teach the Common Core State Standard: Reading: Informational Text
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.3 Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.4 Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 3 topic or subject area.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.5 Use text features and search tools (e.g., key words, sidebars, hyperlinks) to locate information relevant to a given topic efficiently.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.7 Use information gained from illustrations (e.g., maps, photographs) and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text (e.g., where, when, why, and how key events occur).

2. Despite the fact that the Tolbachik volcanoes are surrounded by ice, they’ve been erupting for centuries. Why is heat important to volcanic eruptions and where does it come from?
© AirPano
Having this up as kids come in is a great settle down activity. You can start class by asking them for thoughts about the picture or about ideas on how they could solve the question of the day.

3. Despite the fact that the Tolbachik volcanoes are surrounded by ice, they’ve been erupting for centuries. Why is heat important to volcanic eruptions and where does it come from?
The Tolbachik volcanic complex comprises two major volcanoes and several smaller volcanic peaks on the eastern side of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. The volcanoes have been erupting for centuries, with the most recent activity beginning in late So while the land surrounding Tolbachik is often clogged with ice brought on by the cold Siberian climate, rivulets of lava continue to pump from fissures along the southern slopes.
Depending on time, you can either have students read this silently to themselves, have one of them read out loud, or read it out loud yourself.

4. Despite the fact that the Tolbachik volcanoes are surrounded by ice, they’ve been erupting for centuries. Why is heat important to volcanic eruptions and where does it come from? 1
Image Search
Find a diagram that shows you the different layers of the Earth and the temperature in each layer. How does the temperature change as you move out from the Earth’s core? 2
Web Search
What are plate tectonics? How does this relate to volcanoes? 3
What is magma made up of? How does it form? 4
Video Search
Find a video online that shows you an animated representation of why a volcano erupts. What does it say about the role of heat? 5
What is the relationship between pressure and heat? How might this relate to volcanic eruptions?
There are a couple of ways to use this slide, depending on how much technology you have in your classroom. You can have students find answers on their own, divide them into teams to have them do all the questions competitively, or have each team find the answer to a different question and then come back together. If you’re doing teams, it is often wise to assign them roles (one person typing, one person who is in charge of sharing back the answer, etc.)

5. Despite the fact that the Tolbachik volcanoes are surrounded by ice, they’ve been erupting for centuries. Why is heat important to volcanic eruptions and where does it come from? 5
Minutes
You can adjust this based on how much time you want to give kids. If a group isn’t able to answer in 5 minutes, you can give them the opportunity to update at the end of class or extend time.

6. Despite the fact that the Tolbachik volcanoes are surrounded by ice, they’ve been erupting for centuries. Why is heat important to volcanic eruptions and where does it come from? 1
Image Search
Find a diagram that shows you the different layers of the Earth and the temperature in each layer. How does the temperature change as you move out from the Earth’s core? 2
Web Search
What are plate tectonics? How does this relate to volcanoes? 3
What is magma made up of? How does it form? 4
Video Search
Find a video online that shows you an animated representation of why a volcano erupts. What does it say about the role of heat? 5
What is the relationship between pressure and heat? How might this relate to volcanic eruptions?
You can ask the students verbally or let one of them come up and insert the answer or show how they got it. This way, you also have a record that you can keep as a class and share with parents, others.

7. Despite the fact that the Tolbachik volcanoes are surrounded by ice, they’ve been erupting for centuries. Why is heat important to volcanic eruptions and where does it come from? 1
Image Search
Find a diagram that shows you the different layers of the Earth and the temperature in each layer. How does the temperature change as you move out from the Earth’s core?
(Possible queries: “Bing/Images: temperature of Earth’s layers”, “Bing/Images: Earth’s layers, temperature”).
Students should look at an image, such as the one found here: to look at the temperatures in the various layers of the Earth. They should notice that moving out from the inner core to the outer core, to the mantle, and eventually the crust, the temperature of the Earth drastically lowers. In the innermost core, the temperature is over 9000 degrees Fahrenheit!

8. Despite the fact that the Tolbachik volcanoes are surrounded by ice, they’ve been erupting for centuries. Why is heat important to volcanic eruptions and where does it come from? 2
Web Search
What are plate tectonics? How does this relate to volcanoes?
(Possible queries: “why do volcanoes erupt?”, “plate tectonics for kids”, “for kids, what is plate tectonics?”, “for kids, plate tectonics and volcano eruptions”).
From
Earth is made of four concentric layers - inner core, outer core, mantle, and crust. Outermost layer is the crust, on which we live. This layer is actually made up of seven major tectonic plates. These plates float on the mantle - a semi-solid layer made of molten rock, which we call magma. Convection currents are formed in the mantle as a result of radioactive decay in the Earth's crust. These currents cause the plates in the crust to either move towards each other, away from each other or slide past each other. This movement of plates is called plate tectonics and volcanoes are often as a result.

9. Despite the fact that the Tolbachik volcanoes are surrounded by ice, they’ve been erupting for centuries. Why is heat important to volcanic eruptions and where does it come from? 3
Web Search
What is magma made up of? How does it form?
(Possible queries: “for kids, what is magma?”, “for kids, what causes volcanic eruption?”, “for kids, how does magma form?”).
From
Molten, or hot liquefied, rock located deep below the Earth's surface is called magma. Magma is formed when temperatures within Earth's crust or mantle are very hot and when pressure in places within those layers decreases. When a volcano erupts or a deep crack occurs in the Earth, the magma rises and overflows. When it flows out of the volcano or crack, usually mixed with steam and gas, it is called lava. Fresh lava ranges from 1,300° to 2,200° F (700° to 1,200° C) in temperature and glows red hot to white hot as it flows.

10. Despite the fact that the Tolbachik volcanoes are surrounded by ice, they’ve been erupting for centuries. Why is heat important to volcanic eruptions and where does it come from? 4
Video Search
Find a video online that shows you an animated representation of why a volcano erupts. What does it say about the role of heat?
(Possible queries: “Bing/Videos: for kids, why do volcanoes erupt?”, “Bing/Videos: for kids, what makes a volcano erupt?”).
Answers will vary depending on the video that students end up watching. A video such as the one found here: will explain that the separation of plates in the earth’s crust creates heat and causes the mantle underneath to melt. This creates magma. Hot magma collects under the surface of the Earth and when there is enough of a build up of pressure, the volcano erupts.

11. Despite the fact that the Tolbachik volcanoes are surrounded by ice, they’ve been erupting for centuries. Why is heat important to volcanic eruptions and where does it come from? 5
Web Search
What is the relationship between pressure and heat? How might this relate to volcanic eruptions?
(Possible queries: “for kids, what is the relationship between pressure and heat?”, “for kids, understanding pressure and temperature”).
From
Pressure and Temperature: As we add heat energy to molecules, those molecules begin to move more rapidly. This causes those molecules to exert an increased pressure as they bump into objects around them. It would thus naturally follow that the higher you increase the temperature, the higher will be the pressure in a particular location.
Students should recognize that this means the high temperatures in the Earth’s crust would also be causing pressure. When the heat and pressure become too much to be contained, magma bursts through the Earth’s surface.

12. Despite the fact that the Tolbachik volcanoes are surrounded by ice, they’ve been erupting for centuries. Why is heat important to volcanic eruptions and where does it come from?
This slide is a chance to summarize the information from the previous slides to build your final answer to the question. Students should combine their research in order to understand that the Earth’s inner core is very hot and the temperature drastically decreases closer to the Earth’s surface. This is why the surrounding area of the Tolbachik volcano may be made of ice, but there can still be volcanic eruptions there. The Earth’s crust is made up of tectonic plates and heat is created as the plates move towards or away from each other. This causes the mantle beneath the crust to melt, forming magma. As heat and pressure build, volcanoes are essentially a vent through which magma, gases, and volcanic ash escape.