Headwaters Drought Resilience Challenge - Desafio de Resiliencia a la Sequia en las Cabaceras
As part of the Hazard Education, Awareness, and Resilience Task Force (HEART Force) program, this bilingual, scenario-based role play game engages students in evaluating and investing in strategies to build their communities resilience against the impacts of drought.
HEART Force is a statewide initiative developed in response to the increasing impacts of environmental hazards such as wildfire, flood, and drought on Colorado communities. The program engages youth in understanding these hazards, preparing for emergencies, and strengthening community resilience. Through interactive learning and civic engagement, students explore the science behind natural disasters, their social impacts, and the role young people can play in creating local solutions.
Originally developed for middle and high school classrooms, the game is also well-suited for use with community groups and informal education settings.
Printed copies of the game are available now. We ask for a donation in exchange to cover our cost. If you are interested in getting a professionally printed copy of the game, please email … with your name, shipping address, and request for a game, and/or game with an extension kit.
- For a Headwaters Drought Resilience Challenge game that can be played with up to 18 participants, please donate $80 (includes shipping and handling).
- For a Headwaters Drought Resilience Challenge Game & Extension Kit that can be played with up to 36 participants, please donate $125 (includes shipping and handling).
Context for Use
This lesson is best used after the drought hazard lesson in the HEART Force curricular unit, for students to apply their learning and respond to a hypothetical drought in their own community. 
Preceding lessons:
- Middle School: A Changing Climate: Understanding Drought in Colorado
- High School: Adapting to Extremes: Exploring the Science of Drought in Colorado
Potential lessons to follow include:
The game box for the Headwaters Drought Resilience Challenge
Goals Header
What Students Will Do
- Evaluate information on drought conditions to appropriately use community resources to respond to a drought in their community by assessing the causes and effects of extreme drought.
- Design solutions to address drought risk using a system model of a community drought response effort.
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.
Description
Students must invest wisely in resilience measures that will maximize the community’s ability to bounce back from drought. Students work in three “resilience teams” to determine the strategies that they will invest in as a community. Students take on the role of community stakeholders and consider the effects of climate on different sectors of their community
