In the Comstock Art Facility’s parking lot, students have a rare opportunity to witness the pouring of molten basaltic rock — heated to a piping 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit — onto ice, water or basaltic rock.

The molten rock, or lava, makes up part of the Syracuse University Lava Project, which will offer a seven-week, massive open online course for students to learn more about the trade starting April 7. The course, titled “The Subject is Lava,” was created by professors Jeff Karson and Bob Wysocki, who also created the SU Lava Project four years ago.

“The Subject is Lava” will follow Karson and Wysocki’s projects in exploring the nature and study of lava. The MOOC will aim to be a combination of traditional learning and experimental discovery, Wysocki said.

Wysocki, an assistant professor of sculpture in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, understood lava flows were a natural part of landscape formation and looked to recreate lava that imitates natural volcanic activity in a controlled environment, he said. He took his idea to Karson, a professor and chair in the Department of Earth Sciences.

“He first thought I was crazy,” Wysocki said, “and then he realized I was crazy in the right way.”

The internationally recognized SU Lava Project, which has received attention from the British Broadcasting Corporation and Discovery Canada, is now in full swing.

“My hope is that this MOOC exists somewhere between the classroom and Discovery Channel,” he said.

He added that the interdisciplinary course, which looks at lava made with no added materials as both a science and a form of art, would appeal to a larger audience. Karson said that although some classes and groups have witnessed lava, the SU Lava Project reaches the widest audience in an educational setting through the MOOC.

“We’re doing this for a combination of scientific investigation, artistic creation, education and outreach,” Karson said. “The education part isn’t something we’ve done in a formal way yet, and (the MOOC is) a real opportunity for students to see something really different.”

Karson added that the lava pours have inspired students and even faculty. He said many geologists have never even seen an active lava flow, which the MOOC could help to change.

After more than 10 million hits on videos of the lava pours and the SU Lava Project links, Karson and Wysocki understood the project was receiving responses from all over the world.

“The very large online response that we got suggested to us that there was really the interest out there and it would be an opportunity for us to start advertising the project,” Karson said.

He hopes the online course will prove to be a compelling educational experience for those who have never seen active lava flows.

In addition to the online course, Karson and Wysocki will co-teach a class with a similar focus through the Renée Crown University Honors Program, beginning next fall, said Hanna Richardson, the associate deputy director of the program. The class will not be taught online, but in a traditional classroom setting, she said.

“The Subject is Lava,” which will be at a geology 101 level, will extend the goals of the SU Lava Project, Karson said.

“We weave those together in this class,” he said. “Just like the project and our interests, the class isn’t all about the science or all about the art. It’s sort of a fusion of those two things. Just to look at the lava, it’s impossible not to see how beautiful it is.”

Published on March 24, 2014 at 2:05 am