Learning intentions:

Activity 1: When is a hazard a disaster? ( 10 minutes)

Lead the class in a discussion to review the students’ definitions of:

This could be done using a Think-Pair-Share style discussion, where students are asked to define the word themselves, share their definitions with a classmate and then more widely share with the entire group.

You could use a diagram to show where the terms overlap and differ; and to facilitate the students to start considering when one becomes another.

You may also wish to discuss when risks are ok and when they become ones you might want to reduce or address.

[Note: This builds on the content in Lesson 3 which focused on ‘Natural Disasters’, but looked at the role ‘Vulnerable Communities’ play in making a ‘Hazard’ come a ‘Disaster’.]

Activity 2: Brainstorming Hazards ( 10 minutes)

Students to note down as many hazards as possible, and these are collated into a collective class list of hazards. This could be done in several ways – a whole class facilitated discussion, students writing them down separately and adding them to a growing list, or as a small group activity.

Ask students to consider:

Activity 3: Likelihood and Impact ( 20 minutes)

There are lots of potential hazards around us, but we don’t have to worry about all of them all the time, because some are less relevant to us. However, something that might not happen very often or be very unlikely to occur may still have a big impact on the community when it does, so it is still worthwhile preparing for it just in case. There might also be hazards that have a very small impact on their own, but because they happen a lot – they can quickly add up. Lots of people who work in emergencies and in dealing with hazards use a Likelihood-Impact Matrix to work out which ones to focus on first. We can use the same thing to work out which ones we think are best to prepare for.

Using the hazards you listed, have a think about whether those hazards are very likely to occur; and what the potential impacts could be for each. One hazard might only affect one person or one small location, whereas others could affect whole regions and lots of communities. When thinking about impact – think about the extreme versions of those hazards – in other words, if things went badly, what would the potential worst impact/s be?

Students are put into small groups and given several of the listed hazards and asked to put them on the table below, based on whether they think them very likely to occur, and how big the impact/s could be. Examples of impacts could be discussed, depending on the students’ understanding; along with the concept of flow-on impacts (e.g. blackouts/power outages can be a good example to use to discuss flow-on effects, particularly if they occur for longer periods of time).

To help illustrate how the table works, you may wish to use a more far-fetched science-fiction style scenario to get students comparing hazards – e.g. zombie apocalypse and alien invasion. Are zombies more likely to occur compared with aliens invading? Which could be worse and why?

Based on where the students placed the various hazards, which ones do they think would be better to address first, to try and reduce the likelihood and risks associated with them?

Important! Note to teachers > when discussing potential impacts, some students may become distressed and anxious, so it is important to use discretion in this activity, to watch your students, and ensure you continue reinforcing the idea that discussing these things ahead of time helps us all to reduce the likelihood of these things occurring, and to better prepare for those we cannot. It may help to highlight how unlikely some things are to occur with those students who may be distressed.

Extension Activity ( 5-10 minutes)

Communicating hazards:

Activity 4: Creating a hazard calendar ( 30 minutes)

In schools and communities all over the world, hazard calendars are used to help them focus on when planning needs to happen and when is best to start preparing for hazards and disasters. It is a tool used to help hone in on what is most useful and relevant at the right time of the year.

Have the months of the year placed around the room or on the classroom floor – to make a long calendar in the physical space.

In five small groups, students are given images of different hazards (requires 12 copies of each hazard) and asked to consider when these hazards are likely to occur over the year:

The students then have the option of putting the hazard image next to every single month in the calendar, or to only placing them down next to the months that they think they would be most likely.

Once groups have placed all the hazards down, students are asked to present back to the wider class why they placed them there, and for the class to decide whether they are comfortable with that assessment or not.

Below are some example hazards which could be used for each group, but this activity is more effective when using hazards that students had generated themselves in earlier brainstorming activities. It is also good to use a broad mix of hazard types, impacts and likelihood.

Group 1: Water / Weather Hazards

Group 2: Earth and Fire Hazards

Group 3: Technological Hazards

Group 4: Health and Biological Hazards

Group 5: Conflict/People Hazards And Other Hazards