HURRICANE TRACKING
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TRISHA HOLLAND
Grade Level: 3-6
Time: 2 periods
Theme:
Latitude and Longitude and hurricanes
Purpose:
Students will track a simulated hurricane's path.
Materials:
- Hurricane tracking chart
- Hurricane reports
- Hurricane Hugo laserdisc
Objectives:
- Use latitude and longitude to track a hurricane
- Discuss patterns in hurricane movement
- Discuss the effects of a hurricane on human
and environmental systems
Procedures:
- Introduce the topic: Discuss what students
know about hurricanes. Review latitude and longitude.
- Strategies:
- Pass out hurricane tracking charts and identify the latitude
and longitude lines on the map.
- Warn students that a hurricane is forming in the Caribbean
Sea. Ask students to select a name for their hurricane.
- Read radio reports of hurricane location, wind speed,
and water swell. Provide these to students to read also.
It may help to work in pairs.
- Track the hurricane all the way through its path and have
students connect the dots.
- Discuss where the most damage may have occurred and why.
- Discuss the movement of the hurricane and the strength
of the winds. Compare to other hurricanes.
- Show Hurricane Hugo laser disc to provide images of that
hurricane's damage.
- Culminating Activity: Ask the students to
write a journal entry of a paragraph about the strength and
path of hurricanes and about what kinds of damage one can
cause to humans and to the environment.
Evaluation:
Students will complete the hurricane tracking chart, participate
in the discussions, and complete the writing assignment.
Standards:
- The World in Spatial Terms (Latitude and longitude
and map locations)
- Places and Regions (hurricanes affect certain
regions)
- Physical Systems (hurricanes affect Florida)
- Environment and Society (hurricanes affect
the people of Florida)
- The Uses of Geography (use what we know about
hurricanes to plan for future hurricanes)