Big Idea: Resilience

Help communities recover from a disaster – is a challenge a group of 10 – 12-year-old students and their teachers from Ringwood North Primary in Melbourne Australia pursued in 2011 after a series of disasters in Australia and New Zealand.

Starting with the Big Idea of Resilence this challenge allows learners to investigate what happens when a community faces an emergency, the science behind disasters, and the process and politics of disaster relief  while they develop solutions to help.

ENGAGE

Big Idea: Resilience
Essential Question: How can we help communites when they experience a disaster?
Challenge: Help a community recover from a disaster!

INVESTIGATE

Sample Guiding Questions

These are only example questions we encourage you to ask as many personal and contextual questions as possible.

1. Who decides what is labeled a disaster?
2. What are the causes of disasters?
3. Who is impacted most by disasters?
4. How are they impacted?
5. Who is currently helping?
6. Who is organizing help?
7. Where can we find the best information?
8. Where are there gaps?
9. What can be learned from past recovery efforts?
10. What is the best thing we can do to help?
11. How do we find out who needs help?
12. What is the science behind the disaster?
13. What happens after the initial efforts to help?
14. What long lasting problems generally occur after a disaster.
15. Are there specifc locations where disasters are more likely?
16. etc.

*Once you brainstorm all of the questions organize and prioritize them.

Guiding Activities and Resources
These are only a set of example activities and resources and the learners will need to evaluate the quality of the content. They are not verified or necessarily supported, just examples. The ones that you choose should be in direct relationship to your specific guiding questions and context. Activities and resources for adults, adolescents, and younger children will be different. The goal is to develop solutions that mean something in your community and are sustainable.

Example Activities

1. Explore the science behind disasters.
2. Explore the geography of disasters.
3. Explore the politics of disasters
4. Review the impact of, and response to historical disasters
5. Learn about specific stories of resilience and identify common traits.
6. Contact local governmental officials to learn about disaster plans.
7. Etc.

Example Resources

1. Natural Dusasters – National Geographic
2. Know the Facts, Be Empowered!
3. Natural Disasters – Live Science
4. The Perfect Storm: Politics of Disaster Management
5. Etc.

Synthesis

Using the research findings from your Investigations develop a synthesis that demonstrates a clear understanding of the challenge. For help with creating a synthesis explore this resource.

Solution Prototypes – Using your research synthesis create multiple ideas for solutions and review each one to make sure your research supports it. Share the prototypes with various stakeholders and get feedback.

Solution – with the feedback from the stakeholders develop one solution that has the most potential for success.

ACT

Implement – Develop a plan to implement the solution with the stakeholders and collect data about the impact.

Evaluate – Using quantitative and qualitative measures determine if the solution is valid and what can be improved.

REFLECT, DOCUMENT, AND SHARE

Throughout the experience take time to document the events and reflect on what is happening to build on prior knowledge and identify future questions.

Share what you learned with your local community and the world. Use #CBLWorld on social media.