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Below are some talking points and activities to pass the time, all relating to today’s video.

Talking points

Discuss the ideas presented in the video with your family—at home or over video conferencing. Find ways to involve as many people as possible, especially those who you know are isolated by the lock-down.

• Recently Whakaari/White Island erupted, killing some people and injuring others. In an environment that is so dangerous, did you expect to see so much life?
• Which of the Whakaari/White Island “locals” did you find particularly interesting or beautiful? How about the pelagic—ocean-going—species that were shown visiting White Island?
• What did you think of the way the gannets have learned to retrieve seaweed and use it to cool their chicks? Can you think of anything else you could do to help with this if you were a gannet?
• What did you notice about the gannet’s body as you watched it diving into the water after prey? How about the way it used its body underwater?
• Have you heard of super-pods of dolphins before? The gannets benefited from the super-pod’s feeding technique. Where else did you see one species benefit from another species’ hunting method?

Task—Make a volcano

Has it been a while since you made a volcano?

1. Take a bottle such as a milk bottle.
2. If you have some newspaper handy, you can build up the base of the volcano to give it a more conical shape. Tear the newspaper into little strips and dip them into a solution of glue and water (you can also make a paste from flour and water, or cornstarch and water.)
3. Layer them onto the milk carton.
4. Leave it to dry. (Using a hair-dryer speeds up the process.) Paint your volcano.

Now for the explosion…

1. Use a funnel to put about 2 tablespoons of baking soda into the bottle.
2. Add food colouring in yellow, red or orange if you have any.
3. Add a teaspoon of dishwashing liquid for extra froth.
4. (Take the bottle outside at this point just in case of mess.)
5. Now add 3 tablespoons of white vinegar to make it erupt.
6. Your volcano should erupt with lava!
7. You can add more vinegar to make it erupt again and again… eventually you may need to add more baking soda and food colouring too.
8. Send us a picture of your volcano!