TEACHING CLUES AND CUES
If you and your class
determine that the seis-
mic risk for your area is
very low, you may want
to expand your focus to include
hazards of greater local concern,
such as tornadoes or other storms or
flooding. Keep earthquakes in focus
as well, however. Remind students
that most of them will move several
times in the course of their lives and
that earthquakes can happen
anywhere.
Outside of class, write or
call the “preparedness
people” in your commu-
nity to let them know
P ROC E D U R E
Teacher Preparation
1. Look at Master 1.3a, Preparedness People, and add or subtract items
as necessary to fit your community and the number of students in each
class. Make a transparency from your list.
2. Find a map, or a portion of a map, that includes your students’
homes and one or more local governments. Copy the map onto a
transparency sheet.
3. Decide whether to assign roles, allow students to choose them, or
hold elections, at least for the major roles. If the class is very large,
you may want to assign more than one student for some roles.
4. Find out who is responsible for emergency response in your school
building. Notify this person of your plans to teach about earthquakes.
Notify the administration and fellow teachers as well, and enlist their
cooperation for the long term.
A. Introduction
Ask students if they have ever heard the emergency broadcast system
go into effect on radio or TV. Do they know who is responsible for
emergency response in their school? If they don’t know, tell them, and
briefly describe the procedures that would be followed during an
earthquake. (In most schools, students would drop, cover, and hold
until the shaking stopped, following their classroom teacher’s
directions. Then the principal would direct an evacuation similar to
that during a fire drill. See Unit 5, Lesson 2 for more details.)
Remind students that an earthquake or other natural disaster in their
own area would impact large numbers of people. Tell them that in
Unit 6 each of them will play the role of someone with responsibility
for the community’s emergency planning and survival. In this unit
they will adopt that role and begin to learn about it.
that students will be contacting them
and why and to enlist their
cooperation.
This map is drawn along
state lines for ease of
use. A map drawn along
geological boundaries
B. Lesson Development
1. Project the U.S. Earthquake Hazard Map, Master 1.3b, and deter-
mine how great a seismic hazard is shown for your state or region.
2. Project the Preparedness People master, and go over the list of roles
students could assume throughout this curriculum. Incorporate student
suggestions in developing the final list, then distribute the roles.
3. Assign students to contact their mentors and set up interviews. Each
student will interview one individual to learn what the person does
and what role he or she plays in the community’s earthquake
preparedness plan. Students may tailor their questions to the person,
but every interview should include these questions:
would look quite different and might
put parts of some states in another
hazard category.
What are the current emergency plans for this area?
Have they ever been implemented?
What is your role during an emergency?
How many people answer to you?
A G U
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F E M A
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E I S M I C
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L E U T H S
