The devastation of Hurricane Sandy is widespread across the east coast. But what does that mean to students on the west coast, most of which have never experienced a hurricane? Many just think of it as a really bad rain storm.
As much as we don't want to scare our students, it is very important that they understand what has taken place, how people and cities have been impacted. It is also important for them to understand how the weather is predictable. They were talking about Sandy and its impact at least a week before it happened.
For the lower grades, I suggest spending some time helping them to understand how the weather can be predicted. There are some great websites to help out. The United States Search and Rescue Task Force has a great website about weather that makes it easy to understand. EdHeads has a wonderful website about predicting weather as an activity.
For high schoolers, you may want to go a step further. Especially on the west coast, we have earthquakes, which can cause even greater devastation and we have no ability to predict them. You don't want to scare the kids, but it is important that they understand the risks. One of my favorite earthquake websites is the Earthquake Tracker from the United States Geological Survey. It tracks and catalogs all earthquakes around the world in real time. Or you can zoom in to your specific area.
Don't miss out on a great learning opportunity! The media is talking more about this event right now than the election in a few days.
You could even throw some information into your lesson about being prepared for disasters.
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