Activity

Floods

Key Learning

Students will investigate how floods affect people and how they can be prevented.

The Australian Curriculum

Geography / Geographical Knowledge and Understanding
The impact of bushfires or floods on environments and communities, and how people can respond (ACHGK030)

Geography / Geographical Inquiry and Skills / Interpreting, analysing and concluding
Interpret geographical data and other information, using digital and spatial technologies as appropriate, and identify spatial distributions, patterns and trends, and infer relationships to draw conclusions (ACHGS037)
/ Geography / Geographical Inquiry and Skills / Collecting, recording, evaluating and representing
Evaluate sources for their usefulness and represent data in different forms, for example, maps, plans, graphs, tables, sketches and diagrams (ACHGS035)

Geography / Geographical Inquiry and Skills / Observing, questioning and planning
Develop geographical questions to investigate and plan an inquiry (ACHGS033)

Discussion Questions

  1. What areas have been affected by the floods?
  2. Water always finds the
  3. Highest land
  4. Lowest land
  5. Flattest land
  6. How is water channelled away in the city and country?
  7. What happens when a river bursts its banks?
  8. How do experts predict where and when a flood is going to occur?
  9. Why do people need time to prepare?
  10. Why is flood water dangerous?
  11. In your own words, describe the damage floods can cause.
  12. Describe the images in the BtN Floods story.
  13. What do the floods mean for drought affected areas?

Activities

Floods

Students will explore floods in more detail. Watch the Floods story again then, working in pairs, ask students to recall how the following words and phrases were used in the BtN story.

lowest landrivers burst their bankspredict

preparesandbagsdangerous

drought affectedweight of the wateremergency

Using a thesaurus or the internet, students find the synonyms for the words above.
Students can choose one or more of the following activities. Support students to present their work using an interactive whiteboard.

How do floods affect people? Divide your response into the following categories: Houses, services and emotions. What are the immediate and long term needs of people?

Write some questions you would ask to someone affected by the floods. Role-play the interview with another student.

People should not be allowed to rebuild homes in areas prone to flooding. Create an argument for or against the statement.

What are flash floods and what causes them? How are they different to normal floods?

How can floods be prevented or the damage minimised. Create a public awareness campaign (poster, desktop publish, video or audio) that targets people living in flood prone areas.

 Related Research Links

ABC News – Hundreds evacuated in Victorian flood disaster

ABC News – Flood photo gallery

Victorian SES – Flood advice

http://www.ses.vic.gov.au/CA256AEA002F0EC7/HomePage?OpenForm&1=Home~&2=~&3=~

Children’s BBC – Why do the same places flood?

Geoscience Australia – Floods

http://www.ga.gov.au/hazards/flood.html

©ABC 2010