PHYSICAL SCIENCEHuman Impacts

Bell Ringer

DISCUSSION QUESTION:1.) All of the people you see here are Kentuckians that were taken from us on March 2, 2012 when a Tornado struck. How can we stop this? Write in your notebook and discuss at your table.

Objectives For Today:

•Today we are:

Building an understanding of natural hazards – what are they? How can negative effects be minimized?

Agenda•Bell Ringer

•Sub discussion

•Natural Hazards

Natural Hazards•When discussing natural hazards, it is important to differentiate them from natural disasters

•Natural hazard: a threat of a naturally occurring event that will have a negative effect on people or the environment.

•Natural Disaster: A catastrophic event not caused by human activity that can upset the balance in an ecosystem. Includes weather events such as hurricanes, floods, etc., earthquakes, volcanoes, etc.

Natural Hazards•Natural Hazards are separated into three main categories:

•Interior Processes: Hazards that stem from actions inside the earth

•Surface Processes: Hazards that stem from actions above the earth’s surface

•Severe Weather Events: Hazards from extreme weather

Connection to Nat Geo Movie

• When you see a picture, place your colored card on your white sheet and hold it up to indicate which type of hazard you think it could be.

Surface ProcessesInterior Processes Severe Weather

Think “Orangelike fire”

Think “Green” like vegetation”

Think “Blue” like the sky”

Connection to Nat Geo Movie•Soufriere Hills and Montserrat

Connection to Nat Geo Movie•Galtur Resort

Connection to Nat Geo Movie

Xenia Ohio

Connection to Nat Geo Movie

Haiti, 2010

Connection to Nat Geo Movie

Gulf Coast, 2005

Connection to Nat Geo Movie

Eastern Asia, 2004

Intro into Interior Processes

•Examples of Interior processes

•Earthquakes

•Volcanoes

•Sinkholes

Intro into Surface Processes

•Examples of Surface processes

•Landslides•Wildfires•Drought•Tsunamis•Any Others?

Intro into Severe Weather Processes•Examples of Severe Weather processes

•Extreme Thunderstorms

•Tornadoes•Hurricanes•Floods•Extreme heat waves•Extreme winter

conditions•Any others?

5 minutes

End

•Pick at least one of the hazard from the categories and write down steps you would take towards preventing these hazards from becoming disasters.

•How would you save the people who’s pictures you saw in the BellRinger? The people being hit by the tsunami?

• This is ON YOUR OWN.

Mitigating natural disasters- Individual

10 minute sand timer

10 minutes

End

•Classroom example – Lets pick an obscure one to work on.

•Discuss and apply any additional fixes to your original model

• Discussion with others at your table to build ideas is encouraged! Talk it up!

Mitigating natural disasters

•When you have a process that you are comfortable sharing with the class:

•Write your process on the appropriately colored sticky and place it under the corresponding category on the board (Ex: Drought process would be Green)

Lets share out – What are your thoughts?

Mitigating natural disasters

•THE PROCESS:

•When scientists want to solve a problem, they need to define the problem

•Once a problem is defined, scientists must collect data

•Upon data collection, data must be interpreted to gain an understanding of the nature of the problem

•Once data has been collected and interpreted, corrective action must be identified and applied

Defining the Problem

•Be thinking ahead to next week’s project. Is there a particular hazard that resonates with you? What problem would you like to solve?

•Defining a problem means asking a specific question. Ex: What measures could be put into place that would reduce the human death toll from Tornadoes?

Collecting Data

•To answer your question, you need to collect data in order to know how to tackle the problem.

•Scientists do this in many ways; •placing probes in the paths of Tornadoes •placing buoys in the ocean to measure for Tsunamis•placing seismographs along fault lines to measure movement

Interpreting Data

•Once you have collected the data, it must be interpreted – raw data is nothing without interpretation!

•This involves asking yourself •What commonalities or trends am I noticing?

•What connections can I make with these trends?

Applying Data

•Once you have searched through the data for meaning, scientists begin the process of applying that knowledgeto form a solution

•This involves asking yourself •What commonalities or trends am I noticing?

•What connections can I make with these trends?