PHOTOS: Tartans Young and Old Collaborate on Volcano-Building Science Activity

The science collaboration was the latest in a school year full of fun and meaningful cross-divisional activities at St. Margaret’s.
St. Margaret’s youngest Lower School science students and its oldest Upper School science students came together recently to take part in a fun cross-divisional activity building eruptive volcanoes in the Lower School Outdoor Classroom.
 
The collaboration of kindergarten and grade 1 science students and AP environmental science students was organized by Lower School K-1 science teacher Erin Moore and Upper School science teacher and department chair Edmund Herlihy.
 
The activity started with AP science students leading a lesson with the younger Tartans on how plate tectonics lead to the formation of volcanoes, using the parts of an Oreo cookie to demonstrate.
 
Then, the lesson moved to the sand play area of the Lower School Outdoor Classroom. There, the younger students and the older students built volcanoes using the sand, water and shovels, making sure to form a caldera at the top of their creation that could fit a plastic cup inside.
 
Inside that cup was where the eruption would form.
 
“We used vinegar and baking soda to make the lava—a chemical reaction that kindergarten and grade 1 students recently learned about and experimented with,” Mrs. Moore said.
 
Students from both divisions expressed joy at seeing the chemical reaction lead to an eruption that sent the “lava” down the slopes, oftentimes changing the look of their volcano as a real-world eruption often does.
 
The science collaboration was the latest in a school year full of fun and meaningful cross-divisional activities at St. Margaret’s. The professional community often seeks out opportunities for students in different divisions to come together for joyful academic activities, a unique benefit of St. Margaret’s Early Childhood School-grade 12 campus.
 
Recent activities have included a grade 6 collaboration with younger students in math, and a kindergarten project serving Upper School students by making pumpkins.
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An Independent Preschool Through Grade 12 College-Preparatory Day School in Orange County California

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