Natural Disasters – Sustainable Development Learning Log

In this theme we have looked at the definition of a natural disaster, what classes as a natural disaster and how we could teach this subject in a classroom. There are many different types of natural disaster but here are a few examples: Tsunami, Earthquake, Hurricane, Flood, Tornado, Forest Fire and Typhoon. A disaster is defined as “a sudden, calamitous event that seriously disrupts the functioning of a community or society and causes human, material, and economic or environmental losses that exceed the community’s or society’s ability to cope using its own resources. Though often caused by nature, disasters can have human origins.” (IFRC, n.d.).

Skills I have developed throughout this theme are:

Presentation
Investigation
Confidence
Public Speaking
Practical skills – experiments etc.

When teaching children about natural disasters you have to be sensitive of their age, maturity and previous experiences. I would say that the younger the children are the more sensitive the information you give them in regards of injury and death tolls. As the children move up through the school they will begin to understand more of the language used when describing natural disasters, and although I wouldn’t give statistics of deaths and injuries, you could mention that the numbers are high.

I would start off with a simple definition of what a natural disaster is, then I would ask the class if they know what kinds of natural disaster there are. Then in groups the children would research a given natural disaster and present their findings to the class. We would then look at different experiments relating to natural disaster, some examples can be seen below. The children could then do a writing exercise where they have to come up with a plan for how they would prepare and execute escape for an imminent disaster.

Volcano – the children could make their own mini volcano
Tsunami – show the children how a tsunami is made my having ‘tectonic plates’ under the ‘ocean’ move
Earthquake – the children build mini buildings from various materials and then they go through an ‘earthquake’ and see if any collapse/stay standing
Tornado – using the paper and lamp method, the children can make their own Tornado

These are the experiences and outcomes that could be used for the topic of disasters:

I have collaborated in activities which safely demonstrate simple chemical
reactions using everyday chemicals. I can show an appreciation of a chemical
reaction as being a change in which different materials are made.
SCN 2-19a
I can make notes, organise them under suitable headings and use them to understand information, develop my thinking, explore problems and create new texts, using my own words as appropriate.
LIT 2-15a
I can convey information, describe events, explain processes or combine ideas
in different ways.
LIT 2-28a
As I write for different purposes and readers, I can describe and share my
experiences, expressing what they made me think about and how they made
me feel.
ENG 2-30a
I can create and present work that shows developing skill in using the visual
elements and concepts.
EXA 2-03a
By comparing my local area with a contrasting area outwith Britain, I can
investigate the main features of weather and climate, discussing the impact on living things.
SOC 2-12a
I can explain how the physical environment influences the ways in which
people use land by comparing my local area with a contrasting area.
SOC 2-13a

Useful Resources

https://www.reachoutreporter.com/feature/hurricane-hunters/

www.nhc.noaa.gov

https://weather.com/storms/hurricane-central/

This week we started on natural disasters, a disaster is described as “a sudden, calamitous event that seriously disrupts the functioning of a community or society and causes human, material, and economic or environmental losses that exceed the community’s or society’s ability to cope using its own resources. Though often caused by nature, disasters can have human origins” (IFRC, n.d.). In the first workshop we carried out some science based experiments all about disasters, these experiments included:

Make your own Volcano
Make your own fossil
Durability of rocks
Disaster areas of the world
Crystal formation

There was also an experiment that we watched which was a visual representation of a volcano erupting. There was a beaker with a layer of red wax, a layer of sand and then topped up with water. The beaker was placed on a tripod and heated using a Bunsen burner, as the wax melted you could hear it bubbling under the sand. When the pressure became too much, the wax burst through the sand and became a solid on top of the water. The wax was used to represent the magma, the sand was representing the Earth’s crust and the water was representing the air in the atmosphere. This was a very interesting experiment but unfortunately it would be unfeasible to do in a primary classroom as they don’t have gas valves that a Bunsen burner could connect to.

The second workshop was all about natural disasters and policy. We looked at different plans that governments have in place to prevent, prepare and respond to natural disasters. We also talked about which forms of disaster we would teach in a class and how we would teach these to children. We decided that teaching how a disaster occurs rather than the grim facts of a disaster would be more appropriate for children. Leaving out the number of deaths and injuries would be more child friendly than scaring the children with the dark death toll numbers. You would have to be sensitive to the age, maturity and backgrounds of the children in your class and change your teaching to suit these. For example, you would probably not teach a class of children about a forest fire is people in the class had experiences with that kind of disaster. As an activity we looked at two case studies in our groups, on was from an earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the other was an earthquake in Haiti. In pairs within our group we looked at one of the case studies and then discussed the differences in how each country dealt with the disaster, recovered from the disaster, prepared for the disaster, and which warning systems, and help they received from other countries.

For the second week of the topic we were tasked with doing a 15 minute presentation on a given disaster. Each group picked a disaster out of a hat and they had a week to prepare for the presentation. Our group was given Hurricanes, Tornadoes and Typhoons. We were to research a definition, facts and figures, mitigation, preparation, response, recovery and teaching the subject. Each person took a section and researched it and then all the information was put together into a power point. The presentation was went well but we were all quite nervous about presenting to our peers. We are told that we should be confident in presenting to our peers because if we aren’t then it means we are not good at presenting to children. I don’t think this is right as presenting to a group of people your own age can be very embarrassing as it feels like they are judging you whereas presenting to a group of children in a classroom is completely different as they are usually interested and they respect you.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (n.d.) What is a disaster? [Online] Available: http://www.ifrc.org/en/what-we-do/disaster-management/about-disasters/what-is-a-disaster/