Lesson 5 Activity 2: Eyewitness Accounts

• 45- to 60-minute work session
• In a role-playing exercise, students use eyewitness accounts to gather and evaluate information about the events of the May 18, 1980, eruption of Mount St. Helens.

Key teaching points

• Many people who were in the vicinity of Mount St. Helens during the eruption were interviewed to gain information about the nature and sequence of events of the eruption.

• Although somewhat subjective, these observations were an important component of the scientific investigation of the eruption.

Materials

• Overhead projector
• Transparency of Master Sheet 5.2 a
• Master Sheets 5.2 a, b, c, d
• Activity Sheets 5.2 a - b (photocopy)

Procedures

1. Tell students that on May 18, 1980, people at many locations in the vicinity of Mount St. Helens witnessed the eruption of the volcano. They observed a wide variety of phenomena associated with the eruption, including an earthquake, a massive avalanche, the lateral blast, mudflows, and the fall of airborne materials (tephra, including fine-grained ash). As a review of previous lessons, ask students to name the phenomena they think the eyewitnesses would have seen, heard, or felt.

2. On an overhead projector, show a transparency of Master Sheet 5.2a that shows where the eyewitnesses were located when the eruption occured.

3. Students play the following roles: reporter(s), eyewitnesses, and scientists who are serving on a committee investigating the eruption.

4. Distribute one account to each of the eyewitnesses (see Master Sheets 5.2b-d). Ask eyewitnesses to read the accounts in preparation for being interviewed by a reporter. Encourage students to use props to help them relay their accounts. When they are interviewed, the students should answer questions in their own words.

5. Distribute Activity Sheets 5.2a-b to the scientists. Tell the scientists to take notes while listening to the interviews. After hearing all the interviews, they should list the similarities and differences among the accounts on their Activity Sheet.

6. Divide the scientists into groups of four to six students and ask each group to discuss their recollections of the eyewitness accounts. Eyewitnesses should circulate among the groups of scientists to answer questions. Each group of scientists should prepare a written summary that attempts to reconcile the eyewitness accounts.