When you are gifted an incredible group of inquisitive minds who want to delve into the worse-case scenarios, you want to give them a project they can really sink their teeth into!

This project was created for students who are willing to take on the challenge of formulating an evacuation plan in the event of a major volcanic eruption in the US (we used Mt. Ranier in Washington State, you can also use Yellowstone or Mt. St. Helens) or Earthquake (we used Portland, OR as a city to evacuate given it's place on the Juan de Fuca plate).

You will be amazed to see the creative ideas this project will inspire. This project will impact them because they will have to think about the totality of a natural disaster and how it could affect their community.

This project requires:

1. Research on plate tectonics/volcanoes (depending on what the students choose)

2. Careful planning and organization of thought

3. Reflection of how the project impacted them

Thank you for your support!!

Students will apply scientific knowledge of earthquakes to the hypothetical event an earthquake/volcanic eruption has occurred. They will first present a brief overview of the science of earthquakes or volcanoes, then research considerations (i.e. how to distribute and mobilize resources, who will be the first to evacuated what types of buildings are more dangerous than others, etc), and finally create a five-phase plan for evacuation. The project concludes with a brief reflection of how thinking about the impact of earthquakes affected them as they had to consider the consequences on such a large scale.

This project should be researched in school so the students receive full support.

The objective is to apply scientific knowledge to a real-life situation and critically think about factors affecting public safety.

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Standards

to see state-specific standards (only available in the US).

NGSSMS-ESS3-2

Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects. Emphasis is on how some natural hazards, such as volcanic eruptions and severe weather, are preceded by phenomena that allow for reliable predictions, but others, such as earthquakes, occur suddenly and with no notice, and thus are not yet predictable. Examples of natural hazards can be taken from interior processes (such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions), surface processes (such as mass wasting and tsunamis), or severe weather events (such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods). Examples of data can include the locations, magnitudes, and frequencies of the natural hazards. Examples of technologies can be global (such as satellite systems to monitor hurricanes or forest fires) or local (such as building basements in tornado-prone regions or reservoirs to mitigate droughts).

NGSSMS-ESS3-3

Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment. Examples of the design process include examining human environmental impacts, assessing the kinds of solutions that are feasible, and designing and evaluating solutions that could reduce that impact. Examples of human impacts can include water usage (such as the withdrawal of water from streams and aquifers or the construction of dams and levees), land usage (such as urban development, agriculture, or the removal of wetlands), and pollution (such as of the air, water, or land).

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