Natural Disasters!
A Third Grade Project
Essential questions:
How do natural disasters affect people in different geographic regions and influence their decisions?
What are the key points I need to include in my retelling to help my audience understand the information I find?
How can I effectively communicate some of my ideas in a poem?
Introduction:
You live in Ocean City, Maryland, and you are exhausted. You have been working day and night to repair the damage to your store -- an ice cream shop on the boardwalk -- that Hurricane Isabel caused. (Thirty-five flavors of melted ice cream isn't a pretty sight.) Every morning when you bring in the newspaper, you anxiously look at the weather report. The last thing you want right now is another hurricane -- or even a bad storm -- to come along. You decide that this is no way to live. You want to move, away from hurricane territory. But where should you go?
You happen to have family members who can help you get started in several different places around the country. The problem is, each site you are considering has its own problems, and you don't want to escape one possible disaster only to walk right into another one. You decide to do some research, so that you can make an informed decision about where -- or if -- you want to move.
Next step: Your task
The Natural Disaster Project Webpages were created by Kathleen Spiro, in consultation with Gina Rosena, for use by students at Chevy Chase Elementary School, Bethesda, MD, in October 2003.