Literature Connection for Earth’s Fiery Fury

Paige Hixson

Literature Connection for Earth’s Fiery Fury

Downs, S. (2000). Earth’s fiery fury. Brookfield, CT: Twenty-First Century Books.

Target Grades: 6-9

Summary: Volcanoes can be interesting to study and a fun way to learn about science and how things are created in nature. Earth’s Fiery Fury discusses the different volcanoes that have been formed over time. It explains different aspects of volcanoes. It talks about lava, geysers, mud pots, and thermal pools. Downs explains that lava is magma that spills out of the volcano, geysers are holes in the earth that shoot water into the air, mud pots are a combination of mud and water that can bubble or belch, and thermal pools or hot springs are water that has been heated underground and pushed to the surface. Earth’s Fiery Fury also discusses different types of eruptions and different types of volcanoes. It also compares different volcanoes in size and temperature.

Content: Students are challenged to compare the different sizes of the volcanoes and explore the many shapes of debris and lava the volcanoes can produce. This book also talks a lot about temperature when a volcano is active and what it does to the Earth. Earth’s Fiery Fury is a great book when trying to show how you can learn about math while also learning science. This would also be a good book to let the students learn about math without them knowing they are. I could use this in my classroom by having stations on volcanoes and letting them make a guess and then letting them test what a temperature change can do to water, or other materials. I can also have my students study different volcanoes and have them compare the sizes and areas. I believe this is a good book that I can incorporate into my classroom very easily.

Adherence to NCTM Standards:

NCTM Principles and Standards for School of Mathematics, Standard 4, Measurement, grades 6-8: Instructional programs should enable all students to understand measurable attributes of objects and the units, systems, and processes of measurement and apply appropriate techniques, tools, and formulas to determine measurements-

Understand, select, and use units of appropriate size and type to measure angles, perimeter, area, surface area, and volume.
Use common benchmarks to select appropriate methods for estimating measurements.
Select and apply techniques and tools to accurately find length, area, volume, and angle measures to appropriate levels of precision.
Develop and use formulas to determine the circumference of circles and the area of triangles, parallelograms, trapezoids, and circles and develop strategies to find the area of more-complex shapes.

NCTM Principles and Standards for School of Mathematics, Standard 10, Representation, grades 9-12: Instructional programs should enable all students to-

Create and use representations to organize, record, and communicate mathematical ideas.
Select, apply, and translate among mathematical representations to solve problems.
Use representations to model and interpret physical, social, and mathematical phenomena.

Online Sources:

Category- Thing (tectonic plates)

Web site Name- Plate Tectonics

Web Address- http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/PlateTectonics/description_plate_tectonics.html

Category- Mathematics Content (size comparison)

Web site Name- Images of Volcanoes

Web Address- http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/volc_images.html

Category- Place (location)

Web site Name- Location of Volcanoes

Web Address- http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/volcanoes/vlocation.html

Category- Thing (volcanoes)

Web site Name- Volcanoes