In the wake of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, we here at WGBY spent the afternoon gathering resources to help teach students about these devistating natural disasters. Here are just a few that we felt may be helpful:
- NOVA’s The Wave That Shook The World: lesson plan focused on calculating the speeds and travel times of tsunamis
- Earthquakes Expert Q & A: an interview with a Research Seismologist from UC San Diego
- NATURE’s Stressed Out: students learn how to detect earthquakes and identify epicenters
- NOVA’s Killer Quake: students gain experience with the thinking process involved in constructing an earthquake-proof building
Finally, we also wanted to share a resource valuable for helping our youngest children in difficult times. Sesame Workshop’s “You Can Ask” is a resource that helps work with children to cope with stressful life events. Often times, news broadcasts will have scary images in the wake of large scale disasters. This initiative, developed in response to September 11th, 2001, provides a variety of parent and child materials to talk about things like fear or loss.