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Sediment on the Move
A free integrated curriculum designed for 4th grade students aligned with Next Generation Science Standards.
"Sediment on the Move" is problem-based unit with teacher resources, ready-to-use student materials, videos, and first-person narrative, and 3-dimensional assessments.
Students will use scientific inquiry to design their own community and roleplay as council members, managing the long-term hazards of volcanic sediment - rock, ash and other debris - that impacts communities downstream of volcanoes.
Unit Materials
Teacher materials include a storyline map, resources on using the curriculum, lesson plans, and student storypacks. This curriculum is built on Google products.
Storyline Overview
Lesson 1: My Community
This lesson introduces students to the phenomena of volcanic sediment and the hazards it presents to communities that live along rivers that flow from volcanoes.
Students take on the role of a city council member designing a new community. This community is located along a river that flows from a big mountain, and students later learn that this mountain is a volcano. In groups or individually, students design their community.
Time: Two 30-minute sessions
Lesson 2: I Saw It
Students learn about the phenomena of volcanic sediment and the hazards it presents to communities that live along rivers that flow from volcanoes. Students make and describe observations and produce an article for the community newsletter.
Time: Two 30-minute sessions
Lesson 3: Eyewitness Accounts
Students will engage with first-person sources to form their own ideas and questions about the effect of volcanic sediment on communities.
Time: 60 minutes
Lesson 4: From Big Mountains to Small Rocks
The community wonders where sediment comes from. To find out, students contact a scientist who answers their questions through photos, videos, and a helicopter tour.
Time: 60 minutes
Lesson 5: Sediment Moves
The community begins to wonder if debris flows (sediment moving) can happen when a volcano is not erupting. Students investigate to find out what causes debris flows.
Time: 60 minutes
Lesson 6: Stop that Sediment
Students design structures to hold back sediment from their community and protect against flooding.
Time: Two 30-minute sessions
Lesson 7: So Much Sediment
A council member asks how long sediment could an issue for their community. To find out, students learn to calculate how much sediment from a recent Mount St. Helens eruption remains in the rivers and valley today, and estimate how long it may take to move downstream.
Time: 60 minutes
Lesson 8: Sediment moves...through our community
Students learn how rivers carry sediment, creating hazards. They observe river and sediment behavior and create a hazard map for their community.
Lesson 9: Sediment moves...to other communities
Students are asked to consider how sediment and flooding may affect businesses that rely on shipping. Students observe patterns from photographs and create a report to evaluate the risks of flooding on shipping channels.
Time: Two 30-minutes sessions
Lesson 10: Lahar Warning System
Students evaluate varying perspectives about how to keep communities safe from lahars, volcanic debris flows. They design a safety zone for their own communities if an evacuation were to occur during a lahar and create an emergency plan to share with family and friends.
Time: 60 minutes
Lesson 11: Independent Research
Using a KLEWs chart, students reflect on what they've learned and are still curious about.
Time: 60 minutes
Lesson 12: Town Hall
During the town hall, students bring together all they have learned about volcanic sediment and its effect on their community. Students role-play community stakeholders and share opinions on how to prepare their community.
Time: 60 minutes
Lesson 13: Share with Others
Students review what they learned about the hazards of volcanic sediment in this unit and create a communication piece (a video, newsletter article, social media post, etc.) to share with a community in a different part of the world that also deals with the hazard of volcanic sediment.
Time: Two 30-minute sessions
FAQs and Additional Resources
Volcanoes & Sediment
Volcanic eruptions can produce large amounts of debris in the form of sediment. Volcanic sediment is a serious hazard that can flood river valleys, bury homes and wash out bridges and roads. In the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, many billions of cubic meters of sediment flowed down from the mountain through the surrounding river valleys, which caused major flooding and damage to the homes of people living downstream.
How to Use this Curriculum?
Learning Standards Alignment
This unit is aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards, Common Core ELA Standards, Common Core Math Standards, and Social Studies Learning Standards. This unit supports the Next Generation Science Standard Performance Expectation 4-ESS3-2. Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans.
View the storyline map for more details on how each activity supports these standards.
Student Materials in Non-English Languages
Translations for student materials are available in Spanish, Russian, and Ukrainian. Please contact learn@mshinstitute.org if you need student materials translated into a different language or access to curriculum resources.
Development Team
This unit is a result of a collaborative effort between the Mount St. Helens Institute and our partners.
Lead Curriculum Developers
- Sonja Melander, former Science Education Manager, Mount St. Helens Institute
- Gina Roberti, current Science Education Manager, Mount St. Helens Institute
- Abigail Groskopf, Co-Executive Director, Mount St. Helens Institute
Advisory & Revision Team
- Pranjali Upadhyay, Integrated Curriculum Specialist, Educational Service District 112
- U.S. Geological Survey Cascades Volcano Observatory
Partners & Donors
The Cowlitz Tribe Education and Arts Fund, the Honorable Frank L and Arlene G Price Foundation, U.S. Forest Service, and individual donors.
Credit & Attributions
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This unit also contains links to resources created by other organizations which may use a different license. Please make sure that you understand the terms of use of third-party resources before reusing them. Prior to publishing this unit of study, we have reviewed the content of this unit to ensure that all materials are in accordance with creative commons regulations. If you notice that a part of this unit infringes another’s copyright, please contact us at learn@mshinstitute.org.
Primary source materials including photographs, oral histories and other content was contributed to this project by the following organizations:
- Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission
- Clark County Historical Society and Museum
- U.S. Geological Survey Cascades Volcano Observatory
- U.S. Forest Service
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
- Portland Art Museum
- Cowlitz County Department of Emergency Management
- Volfilm