Ever Changing Landscape
School will begin soon, for many counties. A number of students might not return due to the natural disasters this summer. Students could feel the effects due to loss of home or friends. However, some students might not have had to deal with the natural disasters directly.
A grand total of 83 counties were declared disaster areas over the course of May and June this summer.
With this summer’s natural disasters a very troubling question has been asked.
Did we do this to ourselves?
To investigate this topic further we suggest using Project Learning Tree’s activity “Then and Now” modified to focus on the history of natural disasters effect on your community. Here are some questions to ask when researching this topic.
• Did your community expand in to a flood zone?
• How many natural disasters have affected your community?
• How has natural disasters damaged and/or changed the landscape?
Natural disasters have profound effects on the community. For a big picture use other natural disasters i.e. Alaska’s Great Tsunami/Earthquake of 1964 or Hurricane Katrina’s effect on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Closer to home is the devastating floods in Cedar Rapids and the catastrophic tornado in Parkersburg. Students can see the lasting effects of the devastating damage natural disasters can have on a community and the landscape from these well documented occurrences.
Book List
Grades PreK-2
Boyce, N., Osborne, M. 2007. Tsunami and Other Natural Disasters: A Nonfiction Companion to High Tide in Hawaii. Random House Children’s Books.
McGuire, B., Quake, D. 2007. Natural Disaster. Kingfisher.
Grades 3-5
Boyce, N., Osborne, M. 2007. Tsunami and Other Natural Disasters: A Nonfiction Companion to High Tide in Hawaii. Random House Children’s Books.
Day, T. and C. Watts. 2006. Natural Disasters (DK Eyewitness Series). DK Publishing, Inc.
McGuire, B. and D. Quake. 2007. Natural Disaster. Kingfisher.
Grades 9-12
Barry, J. 1998. Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America. Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing.
Brinkley, D. 2007. The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Cost. HarperCollins Publishers.
Horne, J. 2006. Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City. Random House Publishing Group.
Larson, E., Cline, I. 2000. Issac’s Storm: A Man, A Time and the Deadliest Hurricane in History. Knopf Publishing Group.
McCullough, D. 1987. The Johnstown Flood. Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing.
Miller, D., Rivera, J. 2008. Hurricane Katrina and the Redefinition of a Landscape. Lexington Books
Stern, G. 2008. The Buffalo Creek Disaster: The Story of Survivor’s Unprecedented Lawsuit. Knopf Publishing Group.
