The 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami
In this series of lessons the students would investigate the earthquake and tsunami of March, 2011. Students would look into the cause of the disaster, its effects and how the survivors cope in the aftermath of one of the biggest earthquakes in modern history.
In the news
Read newspaper articles and watch news clips with the students. There are a number of excellent news sites from around the world (articles as well as videos) for kids on the web. For a list of sites visit the For Teachers page.
Here is a great example of a newspaper article written especially for kids about the Japan disaster.
Massive Earthquake Tsunami Hit Japan
What do we know or understand about the disaster?
After reading about the Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan the class could respond using a web 2.0 tool such as Bubbl.us. Bubbl.us is an excellent tool for brainstorming at the beginning of a unit of work or new topic. Students can share words that represent their thoughts or feelings regarding the event.
Bubbl.us
An example of the sort of brainstorm mind map that students can produce:
Can we find more information that explains why this happened?
This is an excellent documentary that describes what happened in Japan when the earthquake and tsunami hit. It gives details about the movement of tectonic plates and the history of natural disasters in Japan.
ABC documentary Japan Tsunami: How it happenedIt helps to focus students when they are watching a video or documentary. Giving students a sheet with some focus questions on is a good way of guiding them towards the topics and information in the documentary that will be the focus of following lessons.
What does this mean for the people who live in the devastated area?
A documentary like this one by the ABC would be an excellent pre-cursor to a group task or investigation. The group may investigate the effects of the communities in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami. Following the group work students may present their research and findings using a presentation tool such as PowerPoint. There are some other great presentation tools that offer more dynamic options these include:
Prezi
Vuvox
Glogster
An example can be found at:
2011 Japan Tsunami example Glog
Students could also create a timeline of events during and after the disaster using a Web 2.0 tool such as Dipity.
Prezi
Vuvox
Glogster
An example can be found at:
2011 Japan Tsunami example Glog
Students could also create a timeline of events during and after the disaster using a Web 2.0 tool such as Dipity.
Reflection on learning
How do the people of Japan recover from this sort of disaster?
In order to answer this question students may consider the following:
An example of a Wordle cloud would be something like this:
In order to answer this question students may consider the following:
- Natural disasters are common in Australia as well. Have students think about the sorts of natural disasters that occur in Australia.
- What disasters have occurred over the last few years in our country?
- How does Australia manage these disasters?
- Do people manage in similar ways here to Japan?
- Why is it important to encourage community spirit and generosity?
An example of a Wordle cloud would be something like this:
