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 drought.
Context for Use
We suggest teaching the following sequence of lessons for a middle school drought unit:
- Lesson 1 - The Vocabulary of Hazards
- Lesson 2 - Envisioning a Resilient Future
- Lesson 3 - A Changing Climate: Understanding Drought in Colorado
- Lesson 4 - HEART Force Drought Game
- Lesson 5 - Exploring Local Hazard Mitigation Plans
- Lesson 6 - Communicate Existing Plans
- Lesson 7 - Design a Resilient Future
Folsom Lake Drought 87 by Vince Mig
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.
- Students will create a vision for the future of their community. They will understand the different sectors that make a community function and decide what resources are important to maintain and create.
- Analyze drought data to identify patterns of drought history and risk in Colorado. Communicate information about the causes and effects of drought in your community. Explain what community members should do in response to a drought.
- 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.
- Students will understand the vulnerability of their community to hazards [drought]. Students will be able to explain the mitigation actions being taken in their county to address the hazard [drought].
- Students will understand the vulnerability of their community to (drought). Students will be able to communicate the mitigation actions being taken in their County to address (drought) to their peers/community.
- 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)
