Wednesday August 4, 2010
How much geography are the schools teaching our children these days? Geography and history have been combined and placed under the broad and vague heading of social studies. (I think social studies is a ridiculous name. It suggests that you will be tested on the previous day's Entertainment Tonight report.) Most of my teacher friends say that the priority is placed on reading, writing, and math development. There just isn't a lot of time left to spend on geography.
I am lobbying all teachers to spend the little time they have allocated for geography teaching their students the information which could one day save their lives. Consider the natural disasters which are most likely to threaten the area in which you and your students live. It could be wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, etc. Next design a class plan which will identify and explore the local geographical conditions which will impact these disasters.
For any schools located along the Atlantic and Gulf Coast an important geography lesson should be about the slope of the continental shelf off their local coastline.
There could be a discussion and demonstration of how a shallow shelf will produce a greater storm surge compared to a steeper continental shelf. Teachers could divide their students into teams, give each team a set of geographical facts (hurricane strength, landfall coordinates, and tide tables) and let them figure out if they would survive the storm. My experience is that kids love this kind of exercise. The most important thing is that one day it might be much more than a classroom exercise. If this should happen you will have imparted valuable skills which could help them survive.
Additional evacuation information available at www.wineandchocolateplan.com
As a parent, it's probably a really good idea for me to teach my children about how the geography of our area affects us in terms of a disaster, too. So, thank you for bringing this up!
ReplyDelete