7th Grade Science Lesson Plan 9/23/16

Natural Disasters

Standard 7.EC.5.A.3: Analyze and interpret data to predict changes in the number of organisms
within a population when certain changes occur to the physical environment (such as changes
due to natural hazards or limiting factors). Specific Focus: Hurricanes

Learning Objectives:
1. The student will be able to determine the costs and benefits of a hurricane.

Materials:
Presentation (Power Point)
Storm of the Century video
Printouts of Article/Questions to Answer

Instructional Procedures:
1. Daily Starter questions: How does flooding affect the ecosystem?
2. PowerPoint: Natural Disasters
a. Talk within a group, make a list of types of disasters
b. Focus in on three types that we will be talking about.
c. Provide information on natural disasters in general- lead to hurricanes
d. Bring in Hurricane Hugo/other hurricanes to connect to their world/make meaning
3. Show Storm of the Century from 3:30-7:45
a. Student will predict what they might see in the video. They should predict what
kind of devastation they may see.
b. Devastation of hurricanes (wind, flooding, infrastructure, rain)
4. The teacher will introduce a weather channel article and provide a class set of readings.
a. https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/hurricane-landfall-benefits-2016
b. Worksheet that guides along as their notes
c. Continue Presentation with discussion on each benefit and their effect on the
environment
5. Learning Target: Predicting Hurricane Scenario
a. Formative Assessment (Application) - did students transfer information to a new
scenario? Did they learn that hurricanes can be beneficial to the environment?
b. Invent a hurricane. Give it a name and a rating on the Saffir-Simpson Scale.
Predict 2 devastations that your hurricane may cause as well as 2 benefactors that
your hurricane may create.

Assessment:
Students will be assessed through their daily starters and learning targets to see what they have
learned. This is a formative assessment that will help the teacher modify instruction.