Natural Disaster Preparedness Unit. (4th Grade)

Each year, I lead our 4th graders through a natural disasters research unit and each year I ask myself, what can I change to make this better. I've done the project in small groups. The Technology teacher and I have teamed up for students to do green screen news broadcasts "live" from a disaster taking place. I've aligned the research with the Big6 inquiry process. And still I've felt like the project was missing something. Well... that is until now.

With a little help from an amazing online simulation game as well as migrating our work to GAFE, I finally feel like we've got something truly awesome worth sharing. We've even got a component that's begging for your involvement, so I hope you'll help!

What follows below is a rough outline of the unit for you to incorporate, adapt, make your own, and otherwise improve for your own needs and the needs of your students. Things are a lot better when we share, and I'm confident that what you'll bring to the table will be something better than I could even fathom, so I can't wait for you to let me know all about it!

Enjoy!

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Unit Name: Natural Disaster Preparedness

Grade: 4

Length of Unit: Approximately six 45-minute classes

Context: Our 4th graders focus on research and writing research reports during the 2nd and 3rd quarters. While researching natural disasters aligns in part with their Science curriculum, it's mostly a topic I've stuck with because it's so engaging for the students. In the past the project has incorporated more robust research of disasters in terms of detailed facts and statistics collected. I have since adapted the lesson unit so that it focuses more on students using what they researched in order to produce a product from which others could benefit.

Description of Unit: Students will design an emergency procedures poster that could be displayed in a school affected by the researched natural disaster.

Summary of Unit (by day/class):

http://www.stopdisastersgame.org

Day 1:  Students have the choice of research one of five natural disasters: tsunami, hurricane, wild fire, earthquake, or flood. Actually, I don't give them a choice. We leave that to fate at the hands of the Fruit Machine. In order to keep subject matter sizes balanced, I only allow a maximum of six students per topic. The reason for the specific five natural disasters listed above is because these are the simulations available on the Stop Disasters game, a game in which, this year, I decided to incorporate as a sort Pre- and Post-Test assessment of knowledge gained through our research. I should say first that Day 1 is a unit introduction day, so we keep things pretty light. Aside from selecting which disaster each student will research, the students also explore images of the disasters and have an opportunity to share what information they already know (or think they know) about each disaster. We conclude the day with a brief introduction to Stop Disasters, enough to keep them salivating for more... which, as it turns out, doesn't take very much at all.

Excerpt from Natural Disasters packet
(see below for pages 1-5).

Day 2:  When students arrive for class they are asked a deceptively simple question: What do you need to have (or do) in order to be prepared if your natural disaster occurred at Longfellow Elementary sometime before the end of the school day? While many students share out basic supplies and procedures, it quickly becomes evident that our knowledge base does not encompass all we would need to know for the different disasters researched by our class. Following the steps of the Big6, students begin considering what information needs to be researched and what sources are available to support each step of the process. Students complete pages of the packet (see below) leading up to the actual research, but stop prior to that so that we can assess prior knowledge via a pre-test before moving forward.

Results from a Tsunami simulation.

Day 3:  Game Day! (or... as we affectionately called it... Epic Fail Day!) Students start the class off with a walkthrough of Stop Disasters including little more than how to access the site, view the mission, and initiate the disaster, which leads to an important final in-game report. I tell my students, "Today, I expect you to fail and I want you to know that that's completely okay." The students do not have any knowledge at all of evacuation and preparedness procedures for a natural disaster. While they could (will) learn a lot simply by playing Stop Disasters, it is not necessary in order to complete the game. I'm collecting three pieces of data during this atypical pre-test: total cost of damages, total number injured, and total number of casualties. Some students will adhere so closely to detail that they may actually pass the simulation. A very small handful will even earn in-game medals for their tactics. But most will fail epically, and that becomes part of the fun. The students compete on easy, which limits them to a small map and a shorter time frame (sufficient enough for us to play one game within our time constraints for class). In order to earn a passing grade for the class, students need only to share their final scores as I record the data to a GoogleDoc. We hold an informal "unfortunate" awards ceremony at the end of class to announce winners in categories such as Highest Total Damage in a Simulation, Greatest Number Injured, and Unexpected Success (to the player who rushed through the simulation and actually scored much higher than he/she expected).

Tremble at the sight of despicable numbers!
(actually, a couple of the kids didn't do too bad at all) Those who earned a medal
this time around will get to play on a harder setting for the post test.

http://www.ready.gov

Day 4:  Our primary source of information for this research unit is FEMA's Ready.gov website for kids. Information on each disaster is broken down to procedures for before, during, and after the natural disaster and all of the facts are bulleted, making the information less intimidating and easier to work with. As students skim the facts on the site, I remind them to view the information through the mental filter of "what information would I need to know if I was a student at a school during this emergency." We save a few minutes at the end of class for students to share out what they learned. Often this is a chance to spotlight similarities in emergency procedures as well as facts unique to specific disasters.

Teacher sample.

Day 5:  With the information collected from Ready.gov, the students now prepare to create their posters using a GoogleDrive presentation template through Google Apps for Education. I show the class an example of a disaster poster for a not-currently-recognized natural disaster (that being a Martian attack) and point out key features including the organization and legibility of facts, use and citation of an image (via our subscription to SIRS Discoverer), and employment of appropriate font and colors to draw the audience's attention. In the past I've had students work together to complete this poster. They can use different computers to access the same Doc, but this year I'm considering having each student create their own poster. Although it may mean more time in the computer lab, it would give each student a chance to make the end product he/she is envisioning. Not to mention it would hold each student accountable.

Student group poster from last year.

Day 6:  As mentioned, our natural disasters preparedness unit will culminate with a return to Stop Disasters for a Post-Test in which, it's my hope at least, the students scores will improve thanks to, in part, their research over the past several classes. Numerous schedule interruptions as well as statewide assessments have postponed our progress through the unit, but I'm excited that it hasn't kept the students from begging me to let them return to Stop Disasters during our Media classes. And this is the very best part for me. We're using a video game featured through Games for Change as a method of determining prior knowledge as well as a motivation to focus on research details in order to improve performance. And it's an INCREDIBLE game!

What I'd like more than anything else, however, is to give my students a chance to skype with classes in other parts of the country (or world!). So, if you happened to teach in a part of the world affected by these disasters, considering the role you might play in our research and work. It would be awesome to hear you and your students share from experience and to check out our posters (and give us feedback)!


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For those of you interested in the materials used by students to collect notes throughout the research unit, I've included screenshots of the handouts below. If you also teach a natural disasters unit with your students and have other activities you think are awesome and meaningful to the students' learning, please considering sharing your thoughts in the comments below.

Make sure you drop by Stop Disasters or tweet to @PlayerThreeUK and show some love!

Sincerely,

- M

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