Natural hazards are the result of physical processes that affect humans every day. Geographically informed people must understand those impacts and how humans use technology to adapt to phenomena such as fires, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, and volcanoes.

This lesson is designed to help students understand that the negative consequences of natural hazards can be reduced if we understand our vulnerability to learn to prepare for them.

Geography, social studies, language arts, environmental sciences

Standard 15: "How physical systems affect human systems"

Two hours

• Computer with Internet access
• Overhead markers and transparencies for student pairs
• Atlases
• Almanacs
• National Geographic collection and index
• Encyclopedias
• Current periodicals, including newsmagazines and newspapers

Students will

• understand the effects of natural disasters on human systems around the world; and
• be able to describe the ways humans prepare for the forces of nature.

Research natural disasters around the world. Helpful Web sites include the following:

National Geographic: Nature's Fury
United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs Relief
The University of Colorado Natural Hazards Center

Create a list of 15 to 20 nations recently affected by natural hazards, enough to assign one nation to every two students in your class. Your collection should show a broad range of events and consequences. Have copies of articles and Web addresses ready to distribute to students on the day of the lesson.

Ask students to list natural hazards around the world. Record their contributions on the board. A few may have stories to share of their personal experiences with these events.

Ask students to examine the list carefully and to write a personal definition of the term "natural hazard."

Have students share ideas. Guide their contributions toward this class definition: "an event in the physical environment that is destructive to human life and property" (Geography for Life, page 265).

Provide another opportunity to add to or edit the original list. Make sure students have included hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, volcanoes, storms, droughts, earthquakes, forest fires, and insect infestations. And make sure that human-caused disasters are taken off the list. During the discussion, rank the disasters by typical degree of severity, suddenness, and occurrence of associated hazards.

Lead students in a discussion of how humans in different parts of the world adapt to and prepare for disasters. Share some of the facts collected in your natural hazards research: types of hazards, places they have occurred, casualties, damage estimates, and relief costs. Point out contrasts between different countries and regions. Ask students to speculate as to why the United States and other economically developed countries might be better prepared than less developed nations to handle hazards. You might also lead them in a discussion of why certain regions of the U.S. are better equipped than others. Ask students to identify technologies that can make a difference in a nation's ability to predict and prepare for natural hazards and to handle their aftermath. Be sure to elicit discussion of communications, construction, transportation, medical technologies, and sociocultural factors, such as a sense of responsibility for well-being and shared beliefs about human-environment relations.

Tell students that they will be analyzing natural hazards in countries around the world. Specifically, they will be trying to understand how people adapt to and prepare for natural hazards. They will also be investigating whether technological development and availability seem to help a nation prepare for and respond to often unpredictable natural hazards.

Divide students into pairs. Assign each team a country from the recent natural hazards list, and have them conduct research, either online or offline. Distribute overhead pens and blank overhead forms titled "Natural Hazards Analysis: Country Data Form" and ask them to record the following information:

• Country name
• Recent natural hazard event, date, consequences
• Other natural hazard risks faced by this country
• Total population
• Population density
• Per capita Gross Domestic Product
• Typical building materials
• Literacy rate
• Televisions per household
• Doctors per person
• Hospital beds per person

Instruct student pairs to work together to gather the information requested on the data sheet. They may use relevant details from their articles and from any research materials found in the classroom.

Give each team a few minutes to present their information to the class. Have a world map ready on the wall for students to point out affected locations and paths followed by natural phenomena, if applicable.

Lead a discussion of the implications of the information students present. Specifically, ask students to grapple with connections between per capita Gross Domestic Product, access to communications technology and medical care, and the number of casualties and amount of damage sustained during hazards. Are certain regions of the world, or certain groups of people, more vulnerable to the dangers of natural hazards than others? What adaptations could humans make to lessen the impact of natural hazards in the countries investigated? What adaptations are they already making? What are the positive and negative consequences of these adaptations?

This assessment has been designed so that the teacher can insert the name of the country about which teams have gathered information, thereby personalizing the task for every student. Assign each individual the following:

Emergency management officials in the government of (__________) have hired you to help them improve their level of emergency preparedness. Your job is to prepare a formal report for the emergency management officials of (__________). Your report should analyze the current situation in (__________) and should include your predictions of future hazards their country may face. Most important: Your report should include a detailed plan to help the emergency officials improve the general level of preparedness among citizens of (__________).

• Have students use their research information to create posters depicting natural hazards which occur in their assigned countries.
  
  
• Create a classroom resource center or bulletin board on natural hazards. Use student posters and written reports, in addition to pictures, pamphlets, and articles.
  
  
• Assign one student per week the task of monitoring the Earthweek Web site. The student can post a small display of the most interesting events or give a short verbal update on one or two interesting hazard events from the past week.
  
  
• Have students look into local natural hazards, including past events and future risks. Invite local officials, including the school principal, city council members, or local police officers and firefighters to speak on the topic of emergency preparedness. Students should be prepared to ask questions about disaster plans at the school, neighborhood, and city levels.
  
  
• Involve students in disaster preparedness. They can write brochures outlining the school's or community's disaster plan. A selection of brochures can then be copied and distributed to families through the school office. Students can also donate time to making or collecting emergency kits for the classroom.

Megan Baker of Nova School in Lacey, Washington, contributed classroom ideas for Standard 15.

Earthweek
UN Relief Web
University of Colorado Natural Hazard Center