Mentos and soda eruptions- lessons on explosive volcanic eruptions
Heather Wright, Alison Rust (contact), Kathy Cashman
, University of Bristol
This activity was selected for the On the Cutting Edge Reviewed Teaching Collection
This activity has received positive reviews in a peer review process involving five review categories. The five categories included in the process are
- Scientific Accuracy
- Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
- Pedagogic Effectiveness
- Robustness (usability and dependability of all components)
- Completeness of the ActivitySheet web page
For more information about the peer review process itself, please see https://serc.carleton.edu/teachearth/activity_review.html.
- First Publication: December 12, 2013
- Reviewed: July 30, 2015 -- Reviewed by the On the Cutting Edge Activity Review Process
Students participate in a popular experiment with Mentos candies and soda. This helps them learn about the scientific method, gas saturation, bubble nucleation, and explosive volcanic eruptions.
Topics
Volcanology,
Volcanism Grade Level
Intermediate (3-5), Middle (6-8), High School (9-12), College Lower (13-14), College Upper (15-16)
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Audience:
This demonstration is impressive and so attracts the attention of students at any level. Through inquiry-based activities students can isolate the factors that cause the eruptions. The teacher can use the soda eruptions as an analogy to help students understand how and why explosive volcanic eruptions occur.
Skills and concepts that students must have mastered:
How the activity is situated in the course:
To date we have used as:
1) laboratory activity in undergraduate volcanology course
2) sample demonstration and lesson in an elementary education course (for future teachers)
National or State Education Standards addressed by this activity?:
Science as inquiry
Properties and changes of properties in matter
Motions and forces
Transfer of energy
Chemical reactions
Goals
Content/concepts goals for this activity:
Pressure and gas solubility, bubble nucleation, bubble growth, surface tension, kinetic and potential energy, volcanic eruptions, limnic eruptions
Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity:
Other skills goals for this activity:
Description of the activity/assignment
Determining whether students have met the goals
Class discussion
Laboratory notes
Written questionnaire
Download teaching materials and tips
Other Materials
Supporting references/URLs
http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/00000109
Baur JE, Baur, MB (2006) The ultrasonic soda fountain: A dramatic demonstration of gas solubility in aqueous solutions. Journal of Chemical Education 83:577-580
Harpp KS, Koleszar AM, Geist DJ (2005) Volcanoes in the classroom:a simulation of an eruption column. Journal of Geoscience Education 53:173-175
Mangan M, Sisson TW (2000) Delayed, disequilibrium degassing in rhyolite magma; decompression experiments and implications for explosive volcanism. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 183(3-4):441-455
Spieler O, Kennedy B, Kueppers U, Dingwell DB, Scheu B, Taddeucci J (2004) The fragmentation threshold of pyroclastic rocks. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 226:139-148
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