Natural Disasters

Earthquake

Action: *Locate a building that would be a hazard in a time of an earthquake. *Find three reasons why this building would be a hazard. *List some ways you can help prevent the three things from happening. More: *Make your own seismograph with a partner: have one person hold a piece of paper with both hands and move the paper back and forth on the table surface while the other person holds a pencil at the same position the whole time on the paper. *Build a town using milk cartons, making one of the buildings very tall. You can add cars, people, trees, etc. to your town. Then knock down your tallest building and see where and what kinds of affects it hand on your town. Record your information.

Volcanoes Volcanoes

Action: *Make a volcano of your own using play dough and a cup. Put some baking soda in bottom of the cup and then pour vinegar in. Observe what happends More: *What happens when the volcano erupts? *What comes out? Is it hot or cold? *What are some of the signal signs of an erupting volcano? *Who and what are affected by the erupted volcano?

Tornado

Action: *It is very important not to be close to any windows, bookshelves, glass, or on the top floor of a building during the time of a tornado. *Find the worst and safest place at your school or home to be during the time of a tornado. More: *Discuss what kinds of things you may need in stock in your “safe” location incase one my have to stay there for an extended period of time. *Make your own tornado using a two liter bottle and a liquid.

Floods

Action: *List several things people can do to in the time of a severe flood. *Look at pictures of floods on the web. While looking at the pictures list everything and everybody that is hurt from this disaster. (Animals? Habitats? Plants? People?) More: *What are two different ways you can build a dam? Construct them both in a large, flat pan and then test them out. *Find out the location of the closest flood to you.

Hurricane

Action: * Go to a computer and get on the internet to a weather website ( or Look at the trends in weather patterns in your hometown and in three different parts of the world. Do this periodically through out the course of a week (preferably during hurricane season) and keep track of observations. *Find where the majority of our hurricanes have hit the US and other countries, and locate and label them on a map. More: *What weather patterns would have to happen for a hurricane to occur? *Do you see any of those trends in the different places you looked? *Are there any close to you? *Come up with your own names for future hurricanes.