While I was an instructor at the College of Central Florida I had the opportunity to implement and refine the assignments and experiments given during the Introduction to Earth Science (ESC1000) laboratory.
For the ESC1000 volcanos lab I wanted to do something hands on and also demonstrate the power and violence behind volatile-driven eruptions. After a short overview on volcano and eruption types I had students experiment with hydrogen peroxide and yeast to create a slow eruption, then we proceeded outside and experimented with Mentos and Diet Coke for more dynamic eruptions. For the final example of a Plinian eruption I conducted the Trashcano simulation with pretty impressive results.
For the glaciers lab I wanted my students to be able to watch plastic flow and see how friction interacts with flowing solids on a smaller scale. So I had my students create Florida Glaciers (silly putty) and measure how their glaciers flowed under different slopes and temperatures. Halved pvc pipe was used to simulate glacial valleys.
