Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes	Part A: What are natural hazards?
20 minutes	Part B: Categorising natural hazards
20 minutes	Part C: What are the causes?
10 minutes	Part D: Report your disaster
05 minutes	Reflection

Part A: What are natural hazards?

Step 1.

Before commencing the lesson, ensure you ask your students if a natural hazard or disaster has ever impacted them. Check-in to see whether some of the content could trigger old memories or trauma. If one of your students finds it difficult to cope with the content, you may wish to talk to the school about organising counselling and additional support for your student.

Step 2.

Let your students know that you will investigate hazards and learn what causes bushfires. But first, you need to do some groundwork. Present the video: The Science of Bushfires explained (youtube.com/watch?v=l38UkQmUISs).

OR

Step 3.

Let your students know that you will be investigating hazards and learn about what causes floods. But first, you need to do some groundwork. Present the video: What causes floods? (youtube.com/watch?v=UZEiQocp6-A)

Step 4.

Facilitate a brief discussion on the following points to gauge students' understanding of how bushfires OR floods occur?

How do floods occur, and when do they become dangerous? The larger the basin, the higher the peak discharge of the river, impermeable ground?
How do bushfires occur, and how do they become dangerous? Fuel, heat and oxygen?

Part B: Categorising natural hazards

Step 1.

Let your class know that they will continue to learn more about hazards and their differences. In the next part of the lesson, they may encounter some new words which they may not have heard before such as Geological, Hydrological, Biological and Meteorological. These are all Geographical terms that help categorise natural hazards.

Step 2.

Explain to your class that natural hazards are classified into several broad categories: Geological and Hydrological hazards; they can record their notes on the Student Worksheet.

Students will not be focussing on Meteorological and Biological hazards for the context of the lesson and expectation of the Australian curriculum standard. However, this is something students could explore or investigate as an extension task.

Step 3.

When students have finished, you can group their answers as a class according to the correct definition to ensure students have a thorough understanding of what hazards are.

Geological:	Hazards are driven by geological (i.e., Earth) processes, in particular, plate tectonics. This includes earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In general, geological extreme events are beyond human influence, though humans have a large influence on the impacts of the events.
Hydrological:	Hazards are driven by hydrological (i.e., water) processes. This includes floods, droughts, mudslides, and tsunamis. Floods and droughts can cause extensive damage to agriculture and are among the main contributors to famine. The deadliest natural disaster in world history (not counting pandemics) was the 1931 Central China floods, killing three or four million people.

Part C: What are the causes?

Step 1.

Let your class know that they will now learn more about natural hazards within assigned groups. If you are a year 7 Geography teacher your class will be investigating Hydrological natural disasters and if you are a year 8 Geography teacher, your students will be investigating Geomorphical hazards.

Step 2.

Ask each group to watch/read the resources for the natural hazard they have been assigned. Groups should create a short explanation of how the natural hazard occurs and can record their responses on the worksheet.

Alternatively, you can share information on natural hazards from your prescribed Geography textbook and dissect the meaning of tectonic plates, how prolonged storms may cause floods, etc.

Step 3:

You may wish to watch the first video as a class and show students how to fill in the worksheet and which information is relevant.

The earthquake, flood, tsunami and hurricane/cyclone explainer videos are available on the World Vision website
(worldvision.com.au/get-involved/school-resources/detail/how-do-natural-disasters-occur-).

How do earthquakes happen? (2.29)
How do floods occur? (1.52)
How do tsunamis happen? (2.08)
How do hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones occur? (2.26)
Four friends of fire (1.13).

Step 3.

Nominate one or two members from each group to share the group's main findings and encourage students to ask questions.

For additional information or provisional support for earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, hurricane/cyclones and wildfire/bushfires see the ‘What is a disaster’ page on the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) website: https://www.ifrc.org/what-disaster. It contains a short blurb on each natural hazard.
There is also information on bushfires on the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR) Knowledge Hub website (https://knowledge.aidr.org.au/resources/bushfire/) under the title ‘Bushfire’.

Part D: Report your disaster

Step 1.

Now that students have acquired extensive knowledge in the field of hazards and their cause. Ask them to pretend they are a journalist and have 1 - 2 minutes to record a warning report about a hypothetical natural hazard. Use the data you have collected to address the following:

name the hazard
determine the community, town, state or country that will be impacted
advise people how the hazard has occurred
use geographical terminology to explain how weather, the state of the land and the severity of the hazard will impact people and the community.

Students can create voice recordings, scripts, or videos about the causes of a natural disaster of their choice.

Reflection

What did you use to think about hazards and what do you think about them now?

Differentiated learning

Extension

Provide an opportunity for students to research other countries that are impacted by natural disasters and conduct a report on a disaster of their choice.

Provisions for learning support

Throughout the lesson, students are divided into groups to ensure varying skills and talents are explored and students can learn and engage with one another for additional support. Ensure you scaffold a specific hazard and how to document the relevant information for a group that you feel may require additional support or instruction.

Teacher reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching practice today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Resilient Australia - Understanding The Cause Of Natural Hazards

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