Charles Robert Darwin geologist: a learning sequence about volcanoes and earthquakes

It is a matter of fact that - in every schoolbook - Charles Darwin is mentioned for the Theory of Evolution but not as a geologist. We recovered this forgotten prospective of the scientist in a learning sequence about volcanoes and earthquakes. Volcanoes and earthquakes are fascinating matters for pupils but they can't make direct experience of them. So we can use the ICT (Information and Communication Technology), namely Google Earth, Fusion Table and web resources on a multimedia board, to please their curiosity. Our sequence starts asking pupils of the third year of middle school to draw and describe a volcano. After sharing answers, pupils compare their drawings with images of real volcanoes and discuss the differences. They realize on their own that a difference of erupted materials can determine a difference of shape. By experimenting magma flow behaviour with analogue materials, they understand the role of viscosity. The pupils use water, oil, peanut butter and tomato ketchup (Baker et al., 2004), also with couscous or sand, along an inclined plane, and warm honey to show the temperature dependence of viscosity. To introduce the topic of earthquakes pupils watch a video about the earthquake of Messina in 1908 and then discuss about the effects of earthquakes. Reports from Darwin's travel on the Beagle (Darwin, 2002) for the earthquake of 1835 at Valdivia and the effects of tsunami at Concepcion in Chile and articles about earthquakes of 2010 and 2015 in Chile are shown. In this occasion the class discusses about the importance of mapping past earthquakes to increase awareness of the seismic hazard. They examine simple models of waves to understand how the seismic energy propagates within the Earth. At the end of the education sequence, a virtual travel with Darwin on board of the Beagle furnishes a feedback on their learning. The teacher prepares a form of Fusion Table (a free Google app that allows geolocalizing informations on Google Maps) with Darwin's places, their coordinates, a little description and picture of stop-over of Beagle, Darwin's text, queries and bibliographic links. Pupils click on locations in Google Maps where Darwin observed a volcano eruption or felt an earthquake. As a consequence, a window with research material opens and they have to answer queries, using the web resources and what they learned in class, experimenting a motivating and stimulating use of ICT.