Lesson Plans & Activities

A man with a white beard and black zip-up sweatshirt who is a wildfire survivor speaks about his experience

Voices of Resilience: Collecting Stories of Survivors

This lesson is best used as part of the HEART Force curricular unit, but it can also be used as part of a unit on natural hazards.
Students collect stories from community members about their experiences with hazards.

Lesson

Middle School

High School

Lines of plants turning yellowish-green above dry and cracked brown dirt

Adapting to Extremes: Exploring the Science of Drought in Colorado

This lesson is best taught at the beginning of a HEART Force unit, but it can also act as a stand-alone lesson to introduce students to drought in Colorado.
Humans have been affected by severe drought throughout history; in this lesson students explore this concept by analyzing environmental data to classify patterns and practice communicating their findings.

Lesson

High School

Flood waters from Hurrican Dolly overtake a suburb

Social Vulnerability to Natural Hazards

This is the third of four lessons in the Lake County Cascading Hazards unit. This lesson can also be used in the HEART Force Curriculum.
In the third lesson of the Lake County Cascading Hazards unit, students learn about social factors that might make one group more vulnerable to a hazard than another.

Lesson

Middle School

High School

Wildfire Resilience Gameboard with Letters A-S in Boxes with different topics

HEART Force Wildfire Resilience Game

This lesson is best used after the wildfire hazard lesson in the HEART Force curricular unit, for students to apply their learning and recover from a hypothetical wildfire in their own community.
In this scenario-based role-play game, students play the role of community members planning for wildfire resilience in their community. After a wildfire occurs, they see how resilience and recovery efforts pan out in their hometown based on their planning efforts.

Game

Middle School

High School

Modern Event Preparedness - Drought via Flickr. Dry dirt with dark cracks in it surrounded by dry grass.

High School Drought Unit

This HEART Force curricular unit includes all lessons for the High School Drought curriculum.
The HEART Force curriculum builds an understanding of fire, flood, or drought in the context of place-based community resilience.

Unit

High School

Homes Flooded in Minot, N.D. by U.S. Army Corps. Brown muddy waters flooded a suburb, leaving the tops of green trees and gray or brown roofs visible

High School Flood Unit

This HEART Force curricular unit includes all lessons for the High School Flood curriculum.
The HEART Force curriculum builds an understanding of wildfire, flood, or drought in the context of place-based community resilience.

Unit

High School

The Spring Creek Fire breaks over La Veta Pass, July by Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. Red wildfire with smoke coming up from it in the dark.

High School Wildfire Unit

This HEART Force curricular unit includes all lessons for the High School Wildfire curriculum.
The HEART Force Curriculum builds an understanding of wildfire, flood, or drought in the context of place-based community resilience.

Unit

High School

Folsom Lake Drought by Vince Mig via publicdomainpictures.net. Dry and cracked dirt stained green with rocks and sand to its sides after a drought

Middle School Drought Unit

This HEART Force curricular unit includes all lessons for the Middle School Drought curriculum.
The HEART Force curriculum builds an understanding of wildfire, flood, or drought in the context of place-based community resilience.

Unit

Middle School

Image of Little Colorado River Flood by Los Angeles District USACE. Pink river flooded in plains of green grass and banks of pink sand with small green ferns

Middle School Flood Unit

This HEART Force curricular unit includes all lessons for the Middle School Flood curriculum.
The HEART Force curriculum builds an understanding of wildfire, flood, or drought in the context of place-based community resilience.

Unit

Middle School

Colorado Wildfire by Nikolay Kondev. In the background orange fire and grayish-brown smoke rises from a green pine forest

Middle School Wildfire Unit

This HEART Force curricular unit includes all lessons for the Middle School Wildfire curriculum.
The HEART Force curriculum builds an understanding of wildfire, flood, or drought in the context of place-based community resilience.

Unit

Middle School

HEART Force Curriculum Overview

This unit consists of several lessons and can take anywhere from 1 to 6 weeks to teach, depending on which lesson teacher choose to incorporate.
The HEART Force curriculum builds understanding of wildfire, flood, or drought in the context of place-based community resilience.

Unit

Middle School

High School

Hazard Mitigation Planning Meeting. A group of nine adults gather around a wooden table littered with papers while discussing mitigation strategies. In the background is yellow walls with wooden shelves and drawers with plants and books on them

Communicate Existing Plans

This is a guide that can be used for a pathway for the Community Resilience Expo.
In this sub-unit, students will learn more about their community’s resilience plans, choose a specific topic to focus on, and develop a product to communicate the plan to their peers and/or their community.

Lesson

Design Challenge

Action Project

Middle School

High School

Gray smoke rises from the Black Forest with blue sky in the background

Adapting to Extremes: Exploring the Science of Wildfire in Colorado

This lesson is best used as part of the HEART Force curricular unit, but it can also act as a stand-alone lesson to introduce students to wildfire in Colorado.
Students build an understanding of wildfire in Colorado using multiple data sources in a jigsaw format.

Lesson

High School

Big Thompson Flood image https://cires.colorado.edu/outreach/sites/default/files/2019-08/1024px-NOAA_logo.svg_.png. Brown flood water races through the street with green trees and houses with green roofs on either side

Adapting to Extremes: Exploring the Science of Floods in Colorado

This lesson is best taught at the beginning of a HEART Force unit, but it can also act as a stand-alone lesson to introduce students to floods in Colorado.
The way we choose to design our communities has impacted community risk and vulnerability to flooding; in this lesson, students will explore this concept by analyzing environmental data to classify patterns and practice communicating their findings.

Lesson

High School

Impacts of drought on the Colorado River in the Southwest U.S., Photo Credit: USGS. A river lays low in the valley of red and orange rocks

A Changing Climate: Understanding Drought in Colorado

This lesson is best taught at the beginning of a HEART Force unit, but it can also act as a stand-alone lesson to introduce students to drought in Colorado.
Students build an understanding of drought in Colorado using multiple data sources in a jigsaw activity.

Lesson

Middle School

Four students gather at a table with books, strategizing and thinking. In the background is windows to a bright sun and green blurred trees

Design a Resilient Future

This is a lesson that can be used to get ideas and prepare for the Community Resilience Expo.
In this lesson, students will work in small groups to develop an idea to increase community resilience, utilizing Design Thinking.

Lesson

Design Challenge

Action Project

Middle School

High School

Hazard mitigation planning on blue map with white lines

Exploring Local Hazard Mitigation Plans

This lesson is part of the Community Resilience Expo, a culminating event for the HEART Force curriculum unit, where students will share what they’ve learned during the hazard lesson and the role-playing game.
In this lesson, students will explore their county Hazard Mitigation Plan to gain understanding about the hazard in their area (flooding, wildfire, or drought), including historic hazards, probability of future occurrences of the hazard, and vulnerability of the area to the hazard.

Lesson

Middle School

High School

A green pine forest on the side of a mountain in the background of a small log cabin with a blue roof on a green grassy hill

Wildfire Resilience in Colorado StoryMap

This is a lesson that can be used to get ideas and prepare for the Community Resilience Expo.
Students interact with a wildfire StoryMap to explore the Colorado Resiliency Framework.

Lesson

Middle School

High School

A diverse collection of trees, shrubs, and brush of varying green and yellow shades are around a blue pond with a wooden bridge in the left background. In the distance are the tops of mountains and a blue cloudless sky.

Flood Resilience in Colorado StoryMap

This is a lesson that can be used to get ideas and prepare for the Community Resilience Expo.
Students interact with a flood StoryMap to explore the Colorado Resiliency Framework.

Lesson

Middle School

High School

Drought game spinner with largest section being purple and assorted other sections of orange shades, blue shades, green and gray.

HEART Force Drought Game

This lesson is best used after the Colorado Drought lessons in the HEART Force curricular unit, for students to apply their learning and respond to a hypothetical drought in their own community.
In this interactive game, students work in three "resilience teams" to solve community challenges that arise during the course of an extreme drought event by using available individual and community resources.

Game

Middle School

High School

Illustrated poster for a bilingual wildfire response game titled El Reto del Incendio del Lago Hourglass / The Hourglass Lake Fire Challenge. The scene shows a wildfire burning through a forest near mountains at sunset. A helicopter drops water on the flames while birds fly across the sky. In the foreground, two officials stand beside a rescue truck and a “Road Closed” sign blocks access. The text at the top reads: “Limited resources, critical choices: A bilingual wildfire response game / Recursos limitados

Hourglass Lake Fire Challenge - El reto del incendio del lago Hourglass

This lesson is best used after the wildfire hazard lesson in the HEART Force curricular unit, for students to apply their learning and respond to a hypothetical wildfire in their own community.
In this interactive game, students work in three “zone response teams” to solve community challenges that arise during the course of a wildfire event by using available individual and community resources.

Game

Middle School

High School

A scenic mountain landscape with patches of melting snow on a rocky slope in the foreground. Below, a small turquoise alpine lake is surrounded by dense evergreen forest. In the distance, tall rugged peaks rise above the tree line under a partly cloudy sky

A Changing Climate: Understanding Wildfire in Colorado

Lesson

Middle School

Big Thompson Flood. Brown muddy flood water flows through street with en trees greand houses with blue and green roofs to the side

A Changing Climate: Understanding Floods in Colorado

This lesson is best taught at the beginning of a HEART Force unit, but it can also act as a stand-alone lesson to introduce students to floods in Colorado.
Students build an understanding of flooding in Colorado using multiple data sources in a jigsaw format.

Lesson

Middle School

A colorful children’s drawing titled “Welcome to Healthy Village” shows houses promoting eco-friendly themes: Solar Energy, Recycle & Reuse, Clean Water, Organic Farming, Cotton Farm, Organic Kitchen, Wind Energy, and Electric Gym. A river runs through the village with trees, mountains, and birds in the background, and people engaging in related activities. The caption reads, “America’s future starts with healthy children because they are the path to a better world

Envisioning a Resilient Future

We suggest teaching this lesson to introduce the HEART Force Unit.
In this lesson, students create a vision for the future of their community and identify what resources are most important to them as a starting point for resilience planning.

Lesson

Middle School

High School

Colorado Mountains covered in snow in the background with orange and yellow trees in the foreground on rolling hills

The Vocabulary of Hazards

We suggest teaching this lesson to introduce the unit as it will benefit students in their understanding of natural hazards throughout the entire HEART Force Unit.
This lesson uses a matching game to build students' understanding and familiarity with different terms used in the world of resiliency planning.

Lesson

Middle School

High School

Flood game community map with labeled Zones A, B, and C

HEART Force Flood Response Game

This lesson is best used after the Colorado Flood lessons in the HEART Force curricular unit, for students to apply their learning and respond to a hypothetical flood in their own community.
This interactive game has students work in three “zone response teams” to solve community challenges that arise during the course of an extreme flooding event by using available individual and community resources.

Game

Middle School

High School

Lesson Plans & Activities

Lesson Plans & Activities

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