GIS Notes

This project uses ArcView GIS for the analysis of the patterns revealed by current earthquakes compared to cities, fault lines, shorelines, and plate boundaries. This project could be conducted with another GIS package. It could also be conducted with the use of a paper map of the world with stickpins or stickers.

For more on the use of GIS in the classroom, visit the following sites:

• USGS Education and Outreach Resources at Rocky Mountain Mapping Center.

• ESRI GIS in Education Resources.

Sample Guiding Questions

This project can be used in conjunction with Internet listserves and e-mail to encourage students to contact people in other classrooms who may have dealt with earthquakes first-hand.

While you are researching and collecting information, use these notes to help focus the questions you ask.

The Hazard

1. Where in the world does your chosen hazard take place? Ideally you would like to be able to find a map or create a map that shows the distribution of your hazard. For example, if you are interested in earthquakes you would want to know all of the places that earthquakes occur.

2. What are the natural processes involved in your hazard?

3. How often does your hazard occur? For example if you are interested in volcanoes, tell how often they erupt.

4. Does your hazard show signs of a pattern? For example, floods are often caused by cutting down trees far upstream, avalanches are associated with snowstorms, fires with drought, etc.

5. Has your hazard changed the way the land looks?

The Human Element

1. What effect(s) does your hazard have on the people where it occurs?

2. How have these effects changed over time? For example, has the hazard become more or less dangerous to people as things have changed? It could have changed because of population, ways people make a living, ways people have fun, etc.

3. What are the ways that people have come up with to live with that hazard?

• For example, are there any myths, legends, religions, or rituals that people have used to explain the hazard?

• For example, are there any physical structures that people have devised, such as dams or earthquake resistant buildings, to help them live with a hazard?

• For example, are there any laws, rules, or regulations devised to control the way people live with a hazard? An example would be building codes and zoning regulations.

4. What are some of the reasons people live in hazardous areas?

5. What influences their decision to live there?

The Collaborative Element

This section is meant for you to describe the nature of your own learning process. You have been expected to gather very personal information about your hazard from people around the world. Outline the information you received and the process you went through to learn what you did. This section should be used to also explain what type of understanding you gained from others as a result of your communication and collaboration.

1. Who did you contact?

2. Describe the information you received from them.

3. Describe how your understanding of the hazard changed by your communication with the people directly affected by it.

4. Describe how you shared your knowledge with other participating schools, and describe how that changed your understanding of your own hazard.

5. Describe your reactions to being the mentors to another school about the hazard you were considered expert in. Was it easy or difficult? Did being a teacher help you to learn? Why or why not?

Remember to pay attention to grammar, punctuation, and spelling in your portfolio.

A portfolio approach could be used with this project. The portfolio will contain all student-generated maps and essay answers to the questions posed. The students will also make a presentation to their peers and conduct assessments on their peers' presentations.

The portfolio approach serves the following purposes:

• It is a motivating factor for students when they know they are collecting information from a real source.
• It engages students creative energy in assimilating what they have learned.
• It allows for interesting sharing of information.
• It is a final product that allows for feedback from the people using the information
• Perhaps most importantly, the survival guide represents a useful product that communities can use to learn more about real hazards in their area.

  Content will be stressed over "frills." Any and all graphics should serve a definite purpose in the presentation of the material.

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  Rubric for Natural Hazards Portfolio

  The students should write a "survival guide" for living, working, and recreating near a natural hazard, specific to a particular location. It should be creative and a document that could be linked on another school's or community's web page.

  The portfolio should contain all of the information that has been collected from research, email, first-hand accounts, and from other sources.

  The specific information that should be included in the portfolio or as separate linked pages is shown below. This is a sample rubric for this unit; it should be modified to suit your particular classroom.

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  The Hazard

  25 points

  This section should contain an introduction to the particular hazard and all the physical properties of it. For example:

• A map showing the distribution and frequency of the hazard.
  
• Describe the physical factors that need to "happen" in order for the hazard to occur.
  
• Describe the ways in which the hazard effects the physical environment in which it occurs.
  
• Identify any benefits the hazard has on the environment.
  

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  The Human Element

  25 points

  This section should examine the human relationship to that hazard.

• Identify who is at risk from the occurrence of the hazard.
  
• Discuss the history of the hazard. Is it more dangerous today than in the past?
  
• Identify any beneficial effects the hazard may have on the population where it occurs.
  
• Describe the ways that people have used to adapt to the environment in which the hazard occurs.
  
• Describe some of the reasons that people choose to live or go into areas where natural hazards are known to occur.
  

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  The Collaborative Element

  25 points

  This section for describing the nature of the students' learning process. The information received and the learning process should be outlined. This section should be used to also explain what type of understanding is gained from others as a result of communication and collaboration.

• Who was contacted.
  
• Describe the information received from them.
  
• Describe how the understanding of the hazard changed by communicating with people directly affected by it.
  
• Describe how knowledge was shared with other participating schools and describe how that changed understanding the hazard.
  
• Describe reactions to being mentors to another school. Was it easy or difficult? Did being a teacher help learning? Why or why not?

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  Bibliography

  5 points

  A proper citation of all the sources used.
  

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  Presentation and Critique

  15 points

  The creativity of your presentation and your thoughtful critique of others.

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  Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation

  5 points

  Proper use of spelling, grammar and punctuation.

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  Total=100 points

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