Mitigating Effects of Extreme Weather Lesson
Lesson Plan
1 hour 50 minutesGrades9, 10, 11, 12Science
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Written by Jeanne Cooper
About this lesson
Students consider how communities are preparing for climate change from both local and global perspectives. Students use their research on mitigation, adaptation, and resilience to complete a poster educating their community about a natural disaster.
Inquire: Students share what they know about how communities are preparing for climate change.
Investigate: Students compare and contrast mitigation, adaptation, and resilience and then investigate adaptation strategies from around the world.
Inspire: Students complete their posters on their natural disasters and share them with the community.
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Everything you need to teach it
How to edit these materials (video)Teaching tips
Suggestions
- This lesson is designed to take at least two class periods.
- Day 1: Complete the Inquire and Investigate sections
- Day 2: Complete the Inspire section
- The teacher should use the term natural disaster instead of natural hazard. Students learned the distinction in Lesson 1, and the remainder of this unit focuses on natural disasters.
- This lesson can be taught in earth science, meteorology, environmental science, or biology classes as well as civics and sociology.
- Students could share their final product either in person during class time or online via a platform such as Google Classroom or Schoology.
- An important component of this lesson is looking for signs of hope in solutions to climate change. If students are struggling with negative emotions and not feeling hopeful, here are some resources you can use to help:
Prerequisites
- This is lesson 3 of 3 in our 9-12 grade Extreme Weather Unit Plan.
- Students should have an understanding of climate change, its causes, and its impacts.
- Computer access will be necessary for each group.
Differentiation
- For extension, this lesson could be used to further explore solutions to climate change.
- To help students with their research to complete the posters, the following resources can be used as a starting place:
From the scientist review
The concepts of resilience, adaptation, and mitigation are covered in this lesson, and students can investigate ways that both individuals and communities might adapt to catastrophic natural disasters caused by climate change. We reviewed the lesson, and it passed our science credibility process.
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About the teacher writer
Jeanne Cooper
Jeanne Cooper holds a Doctorate in Geology from Miami University and a Graduate Certificate in Education from the University of North Carolina Charlotte. She has 25 years of teaching experience in mathematics and science for grades 6–12 and has been teaching since 1995. Jeanne holds professional educator licenses in grades 6–9 Mathematics and grades 9–12 Science in North Carolina, as well as grades 9–12 Earth Science in New Jersey.
