This interactive introduces and houses resources developed by Magma Drillers Save Planet Earth – a University of Canterbury project funded by Curious Minds.
Select here to view the full transcript and copyright information.
This interactive holds resources developed by Magma Drillers Save Planet Earth. Click on the labels for links to videos, PDFs and Word documents. The resources were developed by the University of Canterbury with funding from Curious Minds.
The activity Using Magma Drillers Save Planet Earth provides additional information on using the resources in the classroom.
Transcript
Drilling engineer
Marlene is your drilling engineer role model. Other than tramping through rivers in gumboots, she squashes and blows up rocks to understand how strong they are. Before working at the University of Canterbury, she worked as a tunnelling engineer all over the world helping to design and build giant tunnels in rock. Her favourite part of her job is to travel to cool places to collect neat rocks so that she can figure out how strong they are for building things like tunnels and geothermal power plants and for understanding how volcanoes explode. One memorable job was when she worked on a big team that designed a 15 metre wide, 10 metre high tunnel under the city of Brisbane, Australia. It was absolutely gigantic and the design made sure that the tunnel was stable for five lanes of motorway traffic. Outside of work, Marlene loves, loves, loves rock climbing, which is great because she gets to spend lots of time climbing on rocks when she’s working too!
Resources:
Introducing the game
- Introduction video – part 1 – YouTube video
- Introduction video – part 2 – YouTube video
Mission 1 – Drilling for geothermal energy
- Drilling engineer 1970s – YouTube video
- Geothermal Drillers Save Planet Earth: Drilling engineer – PDF
- Geothermal Drillers Save Planet Earth drilling location – game map
Mission 2 – Energy from magma
- Introduction to the future – 2030s – YouTube video
- Drilling engineer 2030s – YouTube video
- Magma Drillers Save Planet Earth: Drilling engineer – PDF
- Magma Drillers Save Planet Earth drilling location – game map
Text courtesy of Magma Drillers Save Planet Earth
Image drawn by Elizabeth Mordensky
Volcanologist
Ben is your volcanologist role model. As well as dreaming about cakes, Ben travels around the world trying to figure out why volcanoes erupt. His favourite part of his job is being on an active volcano, hiking around and picking up exciting looking rocks and watching volcanoes erupt. Ben recently worked together with the Department of Conservation (DOC) on assessing the hazard of being hit by rocks thrown out of the volcanoes when hiking the Tongariro Alpine Crossing track in New Zealand’s North island. DOC actually used that data to help them decide where not to build toilets! When he isn’t on a volcano, Ben is surfing, snowboarding and building sand volcanoes with his kids.
Resources:
Introducing the game
- Introduction video – part 1 – YouTube video
- Introduction video – part 2 – YouTube video
Mission 1 – Drilling for geothermal energy
- Volcanologist 1970s – YouTube video
- Geothermal Drillers Save Planet Earth: Volcanologist – PDF
- Geothermal Drillers Save Planet Earth drilling location – game map
Mission 2 – Energy from magma
- Introduction to the future – 2030s – YouTube video
- Volcanologist 2030s – YouTube video
- Magma Drillers Save Planet Earth: Volcanologist – PDF
- Magma Drillers Save Planet Earth drilling location – game map
Text courtesy of Magma Drillers Save Planet Earth
Image drawn by Elizabeth Mordensky
Introductory videos
The scientists who created Magma Drillers Save Planet Earth introduce the project in the following videos.
- Mihimihi and introduction to the project – YouTube video
- Game introduction for educators – YouTube video
- Introduction video – part 1 – YouTube video
- Introduction video – part 2 – YouTube video
- Introduction to the future – 2030s – YouTube video
Image courtesy of Ben Kennedy
Teacher resources
The following resources provide help with using Magma Drillers Save Planet Earth in the classroom.
- Using Magma Drillers Save Planet Earth – activity
- Vocabulary activity – Word document
- Key terms activity – Word document
- Name tags – PDF
- LEARNZ Natural hazards: lessons from Iceland
The following resources provide background information on geothermal energy in Aotearoa New Zealand and the Krafla Magma Testbed.
- Geothermal power – article
- Restoring Rotorua’s natural geothermal taonga – article
- Double trouble – Rotorua and Ōhakuri – article
- The advantages and limitations of using geothermal energy to produce electricity – EECA (Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority)
- Geothermal energy – GNS Science
- What is geothermal? – New Zealand Geothermal Association
- Krafla Magma Testbed – website
- Kiwis on to hot source of energy – New Zealand Herald
- Drilling into a volcano – LEARNZ
- Drilling for magma – University of Canterbury video
- Drilling surprise opens door to volcano-powered electricity – The Conversation
Logo drawn by Elizabeth Mordensky
Geophysicist
Lauren is your geophysicist role model. When she isn’t making puns, Lauren is a researcher at the University of Canterbury. She studies volcano, landslide and earthquake hazards using anything from microscopes to satellites. Some cool projects she’s currently working on include monitoring collapsing volcanoes from space and investigating how earthquakes can damage rocks and trigger landslides. When she’s not carrying heavy rocks off volcano summits or staring at computer codes, she likes to hike, ski and play music.
Resources:
Introducing the game
- Introduction video – part 1 – YouTube video
- Introduction video – part 2 – YouTube video
Mission 1 – Drilling for geothermal energy
- Geophysicist 1970s – YouTube video
- Geothermal Drillers Save Planet Earth: Geophysicist – PDF
- Geothermal Drillers Save Planet Earth drilling location – game map
Mission 2 – Energy from magma
- Introduction to the future – 2030s – YouTube video
- Geophysicist 2030s – YouTube video
- Magma Drillers Save Planet Earth: Geophysicist – PDF
- Magma Drillers Save Planet Earth drilling location – game map
Text courtesy of Magma Drillers Save Planet Earth
Image drawn by Elizabeth Mordensky
Environmental risk manager
Dan is your environmental risk manager role model. When he isn’t wearing green wigs (you’ll get this later), Dan (Ngāti Maniapoto, Waikato-Tainui) is an Earth systems scientist at the University of Auckland. He works with communities to help realise their dreams and solve their challenges. Some recent and current projects include trying to listen to rivers, understanding how taniwha can help keep us safe and looking at how what we do on land impacts our oceans. When not doing research or teaching Dan might be cycling with his whānau, surfing, paddle boarding, hiking or fishing.
Resources:
Introducing the game
- Introduction video – part 1 – YouTube video
- Introduction video – part 2 – YouTube video
Mission 1 – Drilling for geothermal energy
- Environmental risk manager 1970s – YouTube video
- Geothermal Drillers Save Planet Earth: Environmental Risk Manager – PDF
- Geothermal Drillers Save Planet Earth drilling location – game map
Mission 2 – Energy from magma
- Introduction to the future – 2030s – YouTube video
- Environmental Risk Manager 2030s – YouTube video
- Magma Drillers Save Planet Earth: Environmental Risk Manager – PDF
- Magma Drillers Save Planet Earth drilling location – game map
Text courtesy of Magma Drillers Save Planet Earth
Image drawn by Elizabeth Mordensky
Acknowledgement
Magma Drillers Save Planet Earth was created by Professor Ben Kennedy and Dr Jonathan Davidson with help from teachers Ian Reeves and Georgina Barrett, artist Elizabeth Mordensky and videographer Rob Stowell. Leapfrog – a 3D geological software company – created the magma holograms.
The project received funding from Curious Minds and GNS Science Beneath the waves.
