Dangerous Geography - The Lessons

Lesson One: Dangerous Geography - Exploring Natural Hazards

1. Show the Hurricanes: New Orleans Under Threat QuickTime Video and Hurricane Katrina: A Scientist's Response QuickTime Video. As a class, have students discuss what they know about the impacts hurricanes can have on coastal communities such as New Orleans. Ask the students:

  • What makes a hurricane a natural hazard?
  • Where else do hurricanes occur?
  • What man-made changes to the environment potentially increase the impact of this hazard?
  • Do other hazards coexist with hurricanes? Why?
  • What are communities doing to prepare for this hazard?
  • What could you do to prepare if you lived in a coastal community?

2. Now ask students to think about and name other types of natural hazards. As they brainstorm, write the hazards they name on the board. When the students are satisfied with their list, ask them to consider the similarities and differences between natural hazards and natural disasters, and have them define both. Ask them if they think natural hazards necessarily become natural disasters, and why or why not. Ask them if they can think of things people do that might influence whether or not a natural hazard becomes a natural disaster.

3. Show The Great Flood of 1993 QuickTime Video, and then discuss the following:

  • What are the similarities between the flood depicted in this video and the hurricanes shown in the previous video?
  • What time of year did these events occur? Are some natural hazards more likely to occur at certain times of the year?
  • Where else in the country do they think flooding occurs?
  • What manmade changes to the environment potentially increased the impact of the flood?
  • What preparations can people make to reduce or control these hazards?

4. Have students add to or refine the list of natural hazards on the board. Also, ask them to identify any of the hazards they think follow seasonal or geographic patterns and to describe what those patterns are.

Lesson Two: Investigating the Impact of Particular Hazards in the USA

NOTE: You will need laptops and to ensure that students have logins

Starter: The USA is a country that experiences many hazards:

  • How many states are there in the USA?
  • Can you name 10 states?
  • Can you name three states where physical hazards might occur?

Activity One:

Resources:

Atlas showing states of the USA (page 138 or p146/147)

PDF file of USA with state boundaries

Students to find and label the following states:

North CarolinaKentuckyNorth DakotaCaliforniaHawaii

ArizonaWashingtonKansasFloridaPennsylvania

(10 mins)

Activity Two:

Give students a number that corresponds to a particular hazard that occurs in the United States. Students use web resources to investigate these further and plot onto their map. Each pair of students should record information about the following:

  • The type of threat that their hazard poses
  • Specific damage caused by past events and their cost
  • The time of year and area of the United States in which the risk is greatest
  • Efforts people are making to reduce the impact of the hazard

In addition, they should plot on their maps the areas where the risk of the natural hazard is greatest. (20 minutes)

3. When students have completed their research, have them present their findings to the class. Record on the board what the students learned about each of the hazards. You may want to record student information in a chart on the board so that they can compare the various hazards. Categories in the chart might include: location, seasonal influences, costs, efforts to minimize damage, and so on. (15 minutes)

4. Once all of the information has been recorded, ask students to draw conclusions about and connections among the various hazards. For example, ask them to assess which hazards are most costly and which are least costly; which hazards occur predominantly in the West, Midwest, and South; which hazards result from or are made worse by other hazards; and so on. (10 minutes)

Hazards by number:
1. Hurricane; 2. Tornado; 3. Flood; 4. Landslide; 5. Avalanche; 6. Tsunami; 7. Volcanic Eruption; 8. Earthquake; 9. Wildfire; 10. Drought; 11. Storm Surge

Web Resources:

Login: bhsgeography

Password: stromboli

for web searches

Web sites:

Lesson Three – How to survive hazards on holiday!

Lesson Aims:

  1. To know what hazards may occur
  2. To know how to respond in the event of a hazard
  3. To know what makes up an emergency kit

Resources:

Computers linked to the Internet or a copy of the site ( on the local school network.

One pc or apple mac to be linked to a whiteboard or projector for teacher led activities.

Activities:

  1. Log onto school network or laptops and type in the browser. Let children explore the site and examine the materials for themselves for 15 minutes. (20 min task)
  2. Stop the computer activity and replace lap-tops and log off leaving only teacher laptop or computer linked to projector or whiteboard. (It is important that these are not left out because of a later activity) (5 mins)
  3. Ask the children for feedback.:
    What was the website for?
    How did you know what to do?
    Why were suitcase labels chosen?
    Explain that as more and more children travel abroad on holday or to visit family they are visiting places that are at a much higher risk of hazards such as earthquakes(Pakistan, India, S. America, LA, etc), hurricanes (Florida) or tornadoes (worldwide including the UK) and so knowing how to survive and prepare for these is more important. (5 mins)
  4. Choose one or two pages to look at in detail. The most effective page to examine is the earthquake page – click on the earthquake label from the frontpage of the site. Slowly go through the instructions and get children to act out duck, cover and hold advice. You could also throw in an “Earthquake!” warning at some point later in the lesson – It will keep them on their toes and concentrating while you go through the advice while also acting as a practical exercise. (15 mins)
  5. PLENARY: Click on the travel kit link and ask the students why each item might be needed. If you can have your own one made up this will help children to visualize what they need. At this point set homework task: (15 mins)
    HOMEWORK: To make up your own emergency kit and bring to school. Take a photograph of the kit and put on USB memory stick to share with class.

(IMPORTANT: Many of the items to be included in a kit are found around the house but strongly encourage students to talk to their parents about this before removing items to bring into class!)

Lesson Four: Emergency Travel Kits

Lesson Aims:

1. To be prepared for a hazard event

2. To know how to protect yourselves and others.

3. To develop planning skills.

Resources:

Computers linked to the to a whiteboard or projector for teacher led activities.

A2 Blank pieces of sugar paper and colour pens for thinking exercises.

Activities:

  1. Review what the students learned last lesson. Students to use sugar paper and colour pens to mind map what they learned in the previous lesson. Try and encourage input from all in the groups of two-six students. (10 mins)
  2. Emergency Kits. You will probably have a range of kits which will vary in quality and content. The idea is for students to explain what they have and why they chose them to go in their kits. It is also important to discuss what NOT to put in kits…a PSP for example or lots of heavy items – REMEMBER the idea is for a travel kit! (30 mins)
  3. Returning to the website ( assign a hazard to a group of students (5 max) that they need to research further using the website outside of the classroom. Explain that they are going to help other children and youth around the world by making short films based n the advice from the website. If there are fluent speakers of another language, they could be encouraged to write a script based on the advice on the web pages and their film could be narrated in this language, but this needs to be decided at this point! The homework task is to complete a storyboard for their next lesson when they will be filming. A blank A4 story board has been added to this pack. (15 mins)
  4. Films can be sent to me: and added to the youtube, teacher tube sites as well as being made available as part of the edu4hazard video podcast (vodcast) and thereby available for the world to access. It is important for students to understand that they can make a difference with their films, but that this means that they must be of a high standard. To inspire them click on this link from one of the videos added to teacher tube. It is in French, but is easily understandable!

Lesson Five: Filming – How to survive a geo-hazard

Lesson Aims:

1. To know how to respond in the event of a hazard.

2. To share your knowledge with others.

3. To develop a range of media skills, such as film-making and sound recording.

Resources:

DV video cameras with a tape or Hard Disc Drives.

PC’s or Apple Macs to use software to extract the film onto a hard-drive so that it is digitized and can be edited using available software.

NB: It is best if student films are pre loaded onto a mac or pc before the next lesson lesson,

Activities:

  1. Students to write name of their group onto blank video cassette label so it can be transferred onto a mac or pc hard-drive after the lesson in preparation for editing next lesson (5 mins)
  2. Briefly examine each groups story board and script when giving out video-camera, to ensure that they have a reasonable shooting schedule and know what they are shooting where. Reiterate that only the best films will make it onto websites such as teacher tube and that their video’s can make a real difference! (15 mins)
  3. Students go and shoot films around school. While they are doing this check on progress and help with suggestions if you think they need practical help! (35 mins)
  4. Students return DV-cameras to you! (5mins)

Lesson Six: Editing and compressing- How to survive a geo-hazard films

Lesson Aims:

  1. To share your knowledge with others.
  2. To develop a range of media skills, such as film-editing and compression for web streaming!

Resources:

Apple mac or PC’s with video-editing software.

Demonstration computer linked to a projector/whiteboard.

NB: It is best if student films are pre loaded onto a mac or pc before this lesson!

Activities:

  1. Pupils assigned to computers or laptops where their films have been uploaded onto. (3 mins)
  2. The demo computer linked to a projector or whiteboard is used to show how to edit the movies. You could show how to do this yourself or ask a media or ICT technician to show the class – Remember: They will listen to an ‘expert’ and are likely to be very engaged in the media and technical side of this project! (10 mins)
  3. Pupils to edit by dragging clips into timeline, using Apple T (command and T) to split at play heads (spliiting scenes) and deleting scenes that are not usable or of a high quality). When this has bee completed save and then add transiaitions between scenes – a simple fade as well as titles. NB These instructions are for using i-movie on an apple mac computer(40 mins)
  4. Save films. Then export for web streaming – This may be best left to a technician if you are unsure!
  5. Send films to me to put on teacher tube etc.

Lesson Seven: Investigating a Local Area's Hazards

1. Have students work with their partner again. Tell them that now their focus will shift from a particular hazard to all the hazards that may affect a particular city or town in the United Kingdom. Ask each pair to select one note card from the cities and towns (geographical locations) group.

2. Tell them that for the remainder of the lesson, they will be in charge of their chosen city or town's hazard preparedness. Their job is to research the hazards affecting that location and to create a report that will help residents and visitors better understand those hazards so that they can take precautions to minimize risk. They may use information from earlier in the lesson, but should also do additional Internet research on the following:

  • the types of hazards that threaten their city or town
  • specific local damage caused by past events and their cost
  • time of year in which the city or town is at greatest risk from various types of hazards
  • specific locations in the city or town that are at greatest risk from the hazards
  • efforts that residents and officials are making to reduce the impact of the hazards

3. Using the information they've collected, students should create a list of steps that residents or visitors can take to be more prepared for the hazards that affect their community. For residents, this may include suggestions about which areas of the community or types of structures are safe and which are not. For visitors, this may include suggestions about what times of year certain hazards are more likely or less likely to occur.

4. When they are finished, have pairs of students present their findings to the class. They should start by telling the class which city or town they are representing and showing its location by attaching their note card to the large U.K. wall map. Their report should then describe the types of natural hazards their city or town experiences and explain why they think those hazards exist. They should report on natural disasters that have occurred in their area in the past, the impacts of those disasters, and measures being taken by city or town officials to prevent similar disasters in the future. At the end of their report, students should present hazard preparedness steps for residents and visitors of that city or town.

5. After students have given their presentations, have the class look at the map on the wall, as well as the chart created earlier in the lesson, and discuss all of the natural hazards. Ask them if they see any patterns, and have them identify those patterns. Ask what factors they think might be responsible for the patterns they identify.

Check for Understanding

Have students discuss the following:

  • What is a natural hazard? What is a natural disaster? Give specific examples of each.
  • What steps can be taken to help reduce the impact of these hazards?