A G U
/
F E M A
12
S
E I S M I C
S
L E U T H S
TEACHING CLUES AND CUES
Please save the lists
students develop in this
lesson. You will use
them again later in this
Ask: How do you meet these needs? (Answers will include faucets,
restaurants, grocery stores or parents’ refrigerators, school cafeterias,
clothing stores, parents’ homes.) Now ask students to name some
natural occurrences that could cut them off from these sources, and
describe their own experiences with snowstorms, hurricanes, floods, or
earthquakes. Beyond their own experience, what events of this type
have they heard or read about in the last two years? Develop a list of
events.
lesson and in Unit 5, lesson 5.
To help students under-
stand why electricity,
natural gas, and other
services would be
disrupted by an earthquake, you may
want to project a transparency made
from Master 5.5b, A Chain of
Disasters.
Many scientists prefer
the term
natural hazard
to
natural disaster
because proper
B. Lesson Development
1. Elicit a definition of natural hazards from the class. Emphasize that
earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, hurricanes, tsunami, and similar events
are the result of natural processes in the life of our dynamic Earth.
These processes have shaped our Earth and created the beauty of
mountains, valleys, lakes, and rivers. Be sure students understand the
difference between natural events and those caused by human activity.
2. Ask: If an earthquake occurs in an uninhabited region, and has no
impact on human beings or human property, is it a disaster? (Not for
human beings, though it may be for other life forms.) Are we able to
control natural events, or accurately predict when they will occur? (No,
but students may be aware of instances in which human activity has
influenced natural events, as in the relationship between dams and
floods, and of our relative success in predicting some meteorological
events.) Lead students to the conclusion that because our ability to
control natural events, or even predict when they will occur, is still
very limited, people have a responsibility to plan how they would cope
if an earthquake or other destructive event struck their community.
preparation can avert disaster,
preventing or minimizing injury and
damage. This curriculum encourages
students to take a proactive role in
preparing themselves and their
community to survive destructive
natural events.
3. Ask students how they and their families coped with any destructive
events they have experienced. Were their homes equipped with
everything they needed? Did they have to leave their homes? Were the
roads open? Were the stores open? Who provided help? (If personal
experiences are lacking, discuss recent news accounts of earthquakes,
floods, and storms.)
4. Look again at the list of vital necessities and widen the discussion to
include the needs of communities as well as individuals. Ask: If a
major earthquake occurred in or near your community, what
necessities would have to be added to the first list? (Answers may
include medical care, electrical power and other utilities, and essential
transportation—for hospital workers, police, firefighters, and people
who supply food, water, and other necessities.)
Emphasize that a damaging earthquake would disrupt all or most of the
community’s lifelines—its supplies of water and power and its
transportation and communications systems. Emergency services, such
as police, fire departments, and emergency medical technicians, would
be severely taxed and unable to answer all calls for assistance. For this
reason, individuals, families, and neighborhoods must be prepared to
be self-sufficient for at least 72 hours.
