Duration: 110 min
Elementary School
Grade: 5
Reducing hazards
Earth and Space Sciences, Geology
CCSS, NGSS
Lesson overview
Natural disasters affect a large part of the world’s population. When they strike, it’s important
to be prepared and know what to do and how to behave. In this lesson the students will get
to know more in detail the important information about the problem and learn about the
measures which can be undertaken to protect the human population from the destroying
effects of nature.
Learning objectives
• Name the natural disasters which can occur in your region, country and on the Earth in
general.
• Learn what causes them and how they occur.
• Think about emergency readiness. Safety before, during and after the disaster happens.
• Propose some possible solutions to reduce the impact of the disasters.
Keywords
Disaster, Impact, Earthquake, Tsunami, Volcano, Floods, Emergency
Standards
Common Core
CCSS ELA-Literacy
RI.4.3
Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more
individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or
technical text based on specific information in the text.
RI.4.5
Compare and contrast the overall structure (e.g., chronology,
comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas,
concepts, or information in two or more texts.
RI.4.6
Analyze multiple accounts of the same event or topic, noting
important similarities and differences in the point of view they
represent.
RI.4.7
Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources,
demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly
or to solve a problem efficiently.
RI.4.9
Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order
to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.
W.4.2
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey
ideas and information clearly.
W.4.7
Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through
investigation of different aspects of a topic.
W.4.8
Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant
information from print and digital sources; take notes and categorize
information, and provide a list of sources.
W.4.9
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support
analysis, reflection, and research.
SL.4.1
Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-onone, in groups, and teacherled) with diverse partners on grade 4
topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own
clearly.
NGSS
4-ESS3-2
Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of
natural Earth processes on humans.
1. Introduction
10
min
On Earth there is a variety of natural processes which sometimes can strongly affect human
lives and even put them in danger. These processes are called natural disasters, however
they are just common incidents related to the natural cycles and they occur from time to
time and interrupt our lives. In various areas of the world we can meet with different types of
these disasters, according to the local natural conditions. To begin the lesson, discuss with
your students:
Which natural disasters do they know of and where can we witness them?
How do they affect people?
Can any of them be caused/supported by human factors?
Has anyone ever witnessed a natural disaster?
2. Team project
After a short introduction made in the opening part of the lesson the students should have an
idea about the basics of the topic. Now it’s time to continue with some further information.
50
min
The best way to teach the topics that can be useful to the students in their everyday life is to
let them participate in the explanation. So engage them with a project, which will result in a
short presentation in the end of the class.
First, divide the students into four groups, each of them will work with one of the main
natural dangers:
Earthquake
Tsunami
Volcanic activity
Floods
The task is to prepare a presentation about natural hazards prevention and protection. The
presentations made in Powerpoint (Microsoft) or Keynote (Apple) can make use of the Share
function of the Lifeliqe app to export screens of the relevant models: “Faults“, “Earthquake
and Tsunami“, “Volcanic activity“, “Stratovolcano (Composite Volcano)“, “Structure of
the Earth“, “Types of rivers”, etc.
All the presentations should contain the following parts:
What is the disaster like? What exactly happens?
How to recognize when the disaster will occur?
How to prepare for it?
What to do during it? Make a list of actions that should be done.
What to do after the danger is gone? Liquidating the consequences.
To find some useful information to work with, apart from the Lifeliqe app they can use some
further resources, like pictures or web pages. Here are some of them for inspiration:
www.wikihow.com/Category:Earthquakes-and-Tsunamis
www.ready.gov/
www.getprepared.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/index-en.aspx
etc.
3. Presentation
After the preparation, each group should be able to present the topic in front of the class.
During the presentations focus on traits like good and comprehensible pronunciation,
logical sequence of presented information. It is important that every member of the group
participates in both the presentation and the preperation.
Furthermore, based on the presented information, run a short brainstorming after each of
the presentations. The goal of the brainstorming is to discuss the possible ways of how to
reduce the impacts of each of the natural hazards. Make a list of all the solutions which the
students are able to think of or invent.
30
min
Are there any ways to prevent disasters?
Or to reduce the damage made?
And to warn the population on time?
Can we in any way prevent the danger/damage?
4. Final wrap-up
When all the presentations are finished, try to do a complete summary of the topic. Let’s
make it in the form of a flow chart. Simulate how some disasters happen and then think
of possible solutions, creating a wide range of possibilities and hypothetical situations.
Moderate the activity and let the students participate actively. The topic is always the same:
What to do, if there is an earthquake/tsunami/volcano/floods? Here is an example of a flow
chart regarding tsunami danger:
20
min