Natural disasters involve all kinds of severe weather types such as tornados or hurricanes that could threaten the life of humans and the risk of their safety (Homeland Security, 2018). Natural disasters can cause environmental losses as well as economic as communities struggle to deal with a natural disaster using their own resources.
When teaching pupils about natural disasters it is important that we ensure that what we are telling them isn’t too hard hitting. It is important that we try our best to avoid videos or news reports that involves recorded number of deaths for example. Attached below is an engaging video aimed at primary school level which develops pupils understanding of what a natural disaster is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaEmIakO7f4
Natural disasters are very unlikely to occur within the United Kingdom. However, there have been many disasters to occur across the world in countries such as Japan and Haiti. Before this session, I was unaware that there are different categories of disasters therefore I was able to gain some research skills as I was gathering information on the different types of disasters and how they occur.
Within the Science workshop we examined different types of rocks such as igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. We also analysed Volcanoes as a form of a natural disaster that could occur. There were various activities within the workshop such as Volcano making to classifying where the disasters would occur around the world.
The world of disasters task would be a good resource to use in the classroom. It allowed me to gain collaborative, research, critical thinking and discussion skills. The sheet could be used as an assessment tool to see what the pupil’s had learned and understood. The task would link to the professional standard of social justice as it would encourage pupils to learn about disasters and where they occur in our world.
The volcano making experiment was also another useful tool that could be used to introduce pupils to natural disasters. It allowed pupils the opportunity to investigate how quickly a volcano can erupt and the devastation it could cause. Safety is very important in this activity as something could go wrong with the experiment therefore safety procedures should be put in place, such as safety goggles.
Politics and the economy are also affected by natural disasters. The government have a huge role to play in the protection of their citizens in emergency of a natural disaster occurring. Their specific roles are to help communities and urban areas prepare, respond and recover from a natural disaster.
Depending on where the country is in the world it can either be a developed country or a developing country. If a natural disaster was to occur within a developed country they would have better economic factors as they have more money to create stronger buildings, put plans in place and are able to get warning of the disasters or evacuation. Compared to developing countries, they don’t have access to these things such as money to create stronger buildings or have access to technology to get warnings of disasters occurring near them.
Attached below are two videos which highlight the sheer difference between developed and developing countries within the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina. In these videos it shows the difference between Florida and Haiti.
These videos indicated the differences between developed and developing countries when dealing with natural disasters. Developed countries have more time to prepare, respond and recover from natural disasters compared to developing countries who struggle to even evacuate their citizens from their homes.
This then led us on to the tree activity. This was a good teaching resource to use, that again linked to the professional standards of social justice as allowed pupils to come up with causes, the issue, effects and solutions of a natural disaster. It could even link to problems within school such as littering, as this would show them the smallest impacts they could make on the world through littering and how this would affect our earth.
My peers and I created a presentation to present to our fellow peers based on Earthquakes. Within the presentation we came up with various activities we could use within the classroom to teach our pupils about earthquakes and how they occur. We gained positive feedback from our peers that our presentation was good through formative feedback such as thumbs up or down. This was a good task to complete as it was good practice for planning and delivering a lesson based on natural disasters. It was good to listen to the other groups as well as there was many different ways of presenting and delivering the lessons. Here is our presentation on earthquakes: EARTHQUAKES.pptx
Overall, my knowledge of disasters increased hugely after this session and indicated many ways we could impact on natural disasters. In regards to teaching, it is important that we allow pupils to learn about the world and the horrific disasters that occur (Halocha,2017).
REFERNECES
Halocha. J (2012) The Primary Teacher’s Guide to Geography. Witney: Scholastic
Homeland Security (2018). Natural Disasters . [Online] Available: https://www.dhs.gov/natural-disasters [Accessed: 4th November 2019].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qbg7orb1lc&list=PLIuTwp02JWm1Zumv1Y9jOI7cltMiAXo0S
