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Water: Too Much, Too Little

Part One: Too Much Water

Lesson Plan Two: Impacts/Effects of Storms

Overview: Students will learn about the impact flooding has on humans and the land.

Estimated Time: 40 minutes

Materials:
PowerPoint Slides 24-36
Bulletin board paper for teacher-made T-chart; markers
3”x3” post-it-notes (10 per group)

Learning Objectives: After completing the lesson, students will be able to:

  1. Identify major impacts/effects of flooding in the Greater Houston area;
  2. Examine specified hurricane mitigation strategies

Opening the lesson:

Open the class period by saying “Hurricanes are fascinating to track and to view on satellite, but beyond the fascination there is some harsh reality to the storms. Hurricanes are the most powerful and deadliest forces in nature. They bring various kinds of effects to an area it makes landfall over.”

  1. After all groups have met, shared information about their storms, posted their information, completed the gallery walk and posted their storm path maps, use PPT Slide 26 with the EQ: What are major effects of flooding in the Greater Houston Area?
  2. Use PPT Slide 27 to have students state some of the effects they noted from their research of the readings. Solicit several answers from students.

Developing the Lesson:

  1. Discuss the “behaviors” of hurricanes. The behaviors are hazards that cause the catastrophic damage. Use PPT Slide 28 Hurricane Behaviors to guide students to speculate about effects/impacts caused by the behaviors.
    • Storm surges/Tidal flooding
    • High winds
    • Tornadoes
    • Heavy rain and Flooding

    Use PPT Slides 29-32 to further define the behaviors.
  2. PPT Slide 33: EQ: How do climatologists relate climate change to the more frequent flooding in the area?
    • Rising air temperatures
    • Rising sea levels
    • Weakened jet stream

    PPT Slides 34-36 explain the 3 conditions.
  3. T-chart on Impacts. Use a large piece of bulletin board paper to make a T-Chart. Write “Impacts” as the title. Write “People” on one side of the T, “Environment” on the other.

    Give each storm group 10 3”x3” post-it-notes. Ask students to generate effects/impacts on the notes—one to a sheet. Considering the hurricane “behaviors” from PPT Slides 29-32, they will write up to 5 effects on people and 5 effects on the environment.

    Give one example of our own for people/environment and post them on the wall chart.

    Allow 10 minutes for students to write on the note sheets. Students may use their notes from Worksheets 2 and 3 to get ideas for effects.

    At the end of 10 minutes, ask each storm group to select one member to place the post-it notes on the chart. Start with Allison and end with Imelda.

Concluding the Lesson:

  1. Once all notes are posted, lead students through an examination of their examples to agree to the examples and offer any additional ones they may have.

Lesson Plan One: Water—Too Much

Lesson Plan Three: How to Reduce the Impact of Hurricanes