It looks as if the winter school closings are behind us. Most likely you have had to change your lesson plans almost daily. Even if you now have to change your intention to use Designing for Disaster lessons please continue to answer the questions on this blog.
If you haven't looked at the Designing for Disaster lesson book lately, please find it and answer the following questions:
1. Which lesson would be most relevant for your students this Spring?
2. Is rereading the lesson enough preparation for you or would you want a short video refresher if one was available?
I can see connections to the recent weather we've been having across the country: the tornado in California, the landslide in Washington, and earthquake in Japan. Right now would be a great time to bring in these current events and use these as case studies.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mary for your comments. I agree and wonder if there are ways to tie in the huge snowfalls which have occurred on the east coast as well and the possibilities for major flooding this spring?
ReplyDeleteAs events happen around the globe, I have my students watch a few new clips and we talk about how designers plan ahead for tragedies.
ReplyDeleteWhen I started this kit, I had my students write as many natural disasters as possible on the board and we briefly discussed them. After we talked about each one, they broke into groups of 2-3 and completed a research project. I gave them the option of presenting through Prezi, PowerPoint, writing a song, doing a newscast, etc. The students did a GREAT job and I felt they relayed the information better than I could have because each presentation was so unique and kept the other students engaged. Caren, I will send you the project/rubric as well as a link to view a few projects.
After we completed our presentations, I broke out the pictures provided in our kit and had the students use the knowledge from the presentations to describe what type of disaster caused the damage and why. I didn't think about it until later, but this would be and EXCELLENT before/after assessment.
After we talked about the pictures 1-5, I set out a display of the building materials provided in the kit. Again, working in teams of 3-4, my students discussed what the material would be used for and what it would protect against.
I heard some great discussion from my students while they completed these activities. We are working on another activity right now, but I am going to tie in the Greenville project at the end of the semester.
Awesome, what a great way to engage the students in their own learning. I like how you had them become the "experts" and use the knowledge gained from their research projects to explore the kit materials.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic way to use the Kit and thank you so much for sending me the rubric, etc. What would you say was the most important element of the whole project to your students?
ReplyDeleteI have started using the kit and the photos and hands-on activities have been the most engaging to my students. I think the idea of the amount of planning and elements to consider that go into architecture and city design will be really useful, too. Although the lesson book is fine for me to refresh my memory, next year we are planning to use this kit with a school-wide event we hold every year to teach middle schoolers about global issues. Next year the theme is "home," so Designing for Disaster will be perfect. Since middle school teachers across all subjects will be leading different parts of the kit, I could see how a video refresher would be really useful to those who feel a little more uncertain about the subject matter or lesson plans.
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