Louisiana State Museum
LIVING WITH Hurricanes in
Louisiana
PERFORMANCE TASKS:
STUDENT LEARNING:
Pre-Visit – Students will examine the water cycle.
The students will describe and define a hurricane.
They will apply their knowledge of a hurricane to
compose a weather forecast.
Knowledge-
Museum Visit – Students will explore the gallery to
locate information on Hurricane Katrina. A weather
forecast predicting an approaching hurricane will be
presented by class members. The class will be
divided into groups and each group will begin
preparations for the hurricane. Each group will orally
report the items needed the reasons, and the total
cost of the preparation.
Comprehension
Post-Visit – Students track hurricane activity in the
Louisiana coastline and draw conclusions about how
often Louisiana is hit by a major storm. They will
create a map that shows where hurricanes in
Louisiana hit and when. The students will interview a
hurricane survivor and write a news story based on
the information obtained from the interview.
Students will research and compare storm warnings
and preparations of early years to storms today. A
class discussion will follow.
A crosscurricular
lesson linked
to the
common core
state
standards.
STANDARDS:
Science
SI-M-A1
SI-M-A3
SI-M-A4
SM—A5
SI-M-A7
SI-M-B7
ESS-M-A-10
ESS-M-A12
DISCOVERY,
OBSERVATION,
LISTING
LOCATING’
NAMING
UNDERSTANDING’
DISCUSSING,
SUMMARIZING
Social Studies
H-1A-M3
Application
USING AND APPLYING
KNOWLEDGE
Analysis
ORGANIZATION OF IDEAS
Synthesis
COMPOSING, INFERRING
Evaluation
EVALUATING OUTCOMES,
RECOMMENDING
Follow directions
COLLECT, INTERPRET,
COMMUNICATE FINDINGS
FROM OBSERVATIONS,
EXPLORATION
ELA
L.8.1, L.8.2, L.8.4, L.8.5,
L.8.6, L.8.10, L.8.1b, L.8.2a,
L.8.2c
Writing
W.8.2, W.8.2a, W.8.2b,
W.8.2,c, W.8.2d, W.8.2e,
W.8.2f, W.8.3, W.8.3b,
W.8.3c, W.8.3d,W.8.3e,
W.8.4, W.8.5, W.8.7,
W.8.8, W.8.10
Speaking & Listening
SL.8.1, SL.8.1a, SL.8.1b,
SL.8.1c, SL.8.1d, SL.8.4,
SL.8.5, SL.8.6
FUCTIONAL FOCUS:
SCIENCE – Students will research the water cycle
and identify examples of the processes of a water cycle.
ELA – Students will write a news story based on
information obtained from an interview.
History – Students will compare and contrast events and
ideas from Louisiana’s past and present.
GRADING
We suggest you grade on
accuracy, creativity, and
completion.
MATERIALS
Jar (with a large opening),
small plant, bottle cap
containing a piece of ice.
Pre-Visit Activities
LI V I N G W I T H H U R R I C AN E S
LE T’S P REP ARE
Pre-Visit Activities
We suggest that you use these pre-visit classroom acitivites to
prepare your students for a rewarding Museum visit. Before your
visit, introduce your students to the water cycle. A suggested
resource for this lesson is http://thewaterproject.org
Words to Know
Teacher Notes
Precipitation
Explain to the students that you will be visiting the State Museum in
Baton Rouge where the students will visit the first floor galleries to
view an exhibit on Hurricane Katrina. The students will then
conduct an exercise on hurricanes while at the museum.
Water Cycle
Condensation
Hurricane
Tornado
Hurricane Exercise
The hurricane exercise will be a weather forecast developed by the
students prior to the visit. The forecast will warn the residents of
Baton Rouge of an approaching hurricane. The forecast must
include information to persuade the audience of the dangers
associated with a hurricane as well as steps to take to prepare for the hurricane. The students
will be sure to give the coordinates of the hurricane. The students should be encouraged to use
a map to locate geographic information.
The weather forecast will be presented to the class when visiting the museum. After the
weather forecast, the class will be divided into groups. Each group will be instructed to prepare
for the hurricane by listing items they will need to purchase if the hurricane hits Baton Rouge.
The students will be given newspapers in order to look through the newspapers to find the
prices of the items needed. Each group will total the cost of the selected items in order to
determine the cost of preparation for a hurricane. Each group will give a report to the class on
the items they selected and the reason each item would be helpful during the hurricane. The
students will state the total cost of the listed items.
Capitol Park Museum Education
www.crt.state.la.us/museum
Living with Hurricanes
Pre-Visit Activities
Activity 1: Condensation
Materials: one large piece of cardboard at
least 8 ½ x 11 (a book will work) a, a kettle of
boiling water, a pair of oven mitts
Activity Procedure:
To see condensation in action, place the
piece of cardboard or the book in a freezer for
about an hour. Wearing the oven mitts, take
the kettle of boiling water and hold the cold
book about 1 foot over the spout (right in the
steam) of the kettle. Water droplets will form
on the book. This is condensation!
Definition: Condensation
Condensation happens when water
vapor in the air gets cold and changes
back into liquid, forming clouds.
.
Activity 2: Precipitation
Materials: Continue the above condensation
experiment long enough, so much water will
condense on the book that it won’t be able to
hold it all. At that point, water will begin
dripping down from the book and you have
created precipitation!
Capitol Park Museum Education
www.crt.state.la.us/museum
Definition: Precipitation
Precipitation occurs when so much
water has condensed that air cannot
hold it anymore. The clouds get
heavy and water falls back to earth
in the form of rain, hail, or snow.
Living with Hurricanes
Pre-Visit Activities
Activity 3: Water Cycle 1
Materials: a large bowl-- metal or plastic
Clear plastic wrap
Coffee Mug (ceramic)
Large rubber band
water
Definition: Water Cycle
Water cycle is a process when the sun's
heat causes water to evaporate from
streams, lakes, rivers, and oceans. The
water vapor rises. When it reaches cooler
air, it condenses to form clouds. When the
clouds are full of water, or saturated, they
release some of the water as rain.
Activity Procedures: Place the large bowl in a sunny
place outside and fill the bowl ¼ full of water. Place
the mug into the center of the bowl. Do not splash
water into the mug. Cover the top of the bowl tightly
with plastic wrap. Place the rubber band around the
bowl to hold the plastic wrap in place. Now, watch
the bowl to see what happens. The mist that forms
on the plastic wrap will change into larger drops of
water and it will begin to drip (in order to speed up the dripping move the bowl into the shade
without splashing). Continue watching for a few minutes and carefully peel back the plastic. Is
the coffee mug still empty? Water from the ocean of water in the bowl evaporated. Then it
condensed to form misty clouds on the plastic wrap. When the clouds became saturated it
rained into the mug
This experiment adapted from resources provided by the Monroe County Water Authority http://www.mcwa.com/MyWater/KidsWaterFun.aspx#cycle
Activity 4: Water Cycle 2
Materials: Jar (with large opening)
Small plant
Bottle cap containing a piece of ice
Soil
Sand
Small rocks or pebbles
Directions: Please see attached document, “Learn How the Water Cycle Works”.
Activity 5: Suggested website for information on hurricanes and tornadoes is
http://www.fema.gov/news-release/2008/04/04/fema-kids-preparing-kids-and-their-families
Capitol Park Museum Education
www.crt.state.la.us/museum
Living with Hurricanes
Pre-Visit Activities
Hurricanes
Hurricanes are severe tropical storms that form in the southern Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea,
Gulf of Mexico and in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Hurricanes gather heat and energy through
contact with warm ocean waters.
Evaporation from the seawater increases their power. Hurricanes rotate in a counter-clockwise
direction around an "eye." Hurricanes have winds at least 74 miles per hour.
When hurricanes come onto land, their heavy rain, strong winds and large waves can damage
buildings, trees and cars. The heavy waves are called a storm surge. Storm surges are very
dangerous and it is important to take shelter during a hurricane and listen to the television or
radio for instructions. "Hurricane" comes from the Spanish word hurricane.
Tornadoes
Tornadoes are nature’s most violent storms. Spawned from powerful thunderstorms, tornadoes
can cause fatalities and devastate a neighborhood in seconds. A tornado appears as a rotating,
funnel-shaped cloud that extends from a thunderstorm to the ground with whirling winds that
can reach 300 miles per hour. Damage paths can be in excess of one mile wide and 50 miles
long. Every state is at some risk from this hazard. Some tornadoes are clearly visible, while rain
or nearby low-hanging clouds obscure others. Occasionally, tornadoes develop so rapidly that
little, if any, advance warning is possible. Before a tornado hits, the wind may die down and the
air may become very still. A cloud of debris can mark the location of a tornado even if a funnel is
not visible. Tornadoes generally occur near the trailing edge of a thunderstorm. It is not
uncommon to see clear, sunlit skies behind a tornado.
Capitol Park Museum Education
www.crt.state.la.us/museum
Living with Hurricanes
Post-Visit Activities
Use our post-visit acitivites to reinforce what your students learned during their visit to Capitol
Park.
Activity 1.
Instruct the students to track the hurricane activity in the Louisiana coastline and draw
conclusions about how often Louisiana is hit with a major storm.
Instruct the students to create a map that shows where the hurricanes hit and when.
Activity 2.
Have each student make a list of questions they wouuld use to interview a hurricane survivor.
Invite a hurricane survivor to visit your classroom and the students will interview the survivor
with questions from their lists.
The students will write a news story from the information obtained from the interview.
Activity 3.
Students will research and compare storms of yesteryear to storms of today. Each student will
write a report on the comparison.
Activity 4.
Students will orally report their comparisons to the class, and a class discussion will follow.
Capitol Park Museum Education
www.crt.state.la.us/museum
Living with Hurricanes
Did you know …
That this tree is rarely blown down by strong winds or damaged in hurricanes because of the
trunk and root system of the tree.
Used with permission, The Florida Center for Instructional Technology, http.//etc.usf.edu/clipart/
___________________________________________________________________
The Water Cycle
The sun’s energy is the driving force behind the water cycle. The sun heats up water on land
and where it collects in the oceans, lakes, and seas as well as under the surface of the earth
(groundwater). The water changes from liquid to water vapor in a process called evaporation
(Figure A). The water vapor cools and, in a process called condensation (Figure B), forms
droplets in the atmosphere. These droplets become clouds. The droplets (or ice crystals if it is
cold enough) gather and then fall from the sky in a process called precipitation (Figure C).
Precipitation falls in the form of rain, snow, sleet, and hail. This precipitation gathers in streams
and rivers where it flows and becomes runoff. Runoff flows back into the oceans, seas, and
lakes and collects under the surface of the earth as groundwater.