Environmental hazards—such as wildfire, flood, and drought—are increasingly affecting communities in Colorado. With this rise in hazardous events, there is a pressing need for communities to become more resilient through education, preparation, and planning.
This unit is for Middle School students to learn about flooding.
Context for Use
We suggest teaching the following sequence of lessons for a middle school flood unit.
- Lesson 1: The Vocabulary of Hazards
- Lesson 2: Envisioning a Resilient Future
- Lesson 3: A Changing Climate: Understanding Floods in Colorado
- Lesson 4: HEART Force Flood Response Game
- Lesson 5: Exploring Local Hazard Mitigation Plans
- Lesson 6: Communicate Existing Plans
- Lesson 7: Design a Resilient Future
Image sourced from Flickr, by Los Angeles District USACE.
Program
Resource Type
Unit
Topics
Middle School
NGSS Disciplinary Core Idea(s)
Published Date
Goals Header
What Student Will Do
Goals Header
What Student Will Do
- Students will understand the meaning of preparedness, mitigation, and resilience, and be able to distinguish between the terms.
- Explain what community members should do to be safe in the event of a flood.
- Students will create a vision for the future of their community. They will also understand the different sectors that make a community function and decide what resources are important to maintain and create.
- Analyze flood data to identify patterns of flood history and risk in Colorado. Communicate information about historic causes and effects of floods in your community. Explain what community members should do to be safe in the event of a flood.
- Evaluate information on flood conditions to appropriately use community resources to respond to a flood in their community by assessing the causes and effects of extreme flooding. Design solutions to address flood risk using a system model of a community flood response effort.
- Students will understand the vulnerability of their community to hazards and be able to explain mitigation actions being taken in their county to address the hazard(s). [wildfire, flooding, or drought].
- Students will create a human-centered design solution for their community to increase community resilience.
Teaching Materials
User note: To make an editable copy of the teaching materials in Google Drive, select File > “Make a copy”. This will make a copy for you to save to your own drive and edit as you see fit.
HEART Force Curriculum Materials (Google Drive folder)
