Identify Local Natural Hazards to Prevent Powerful Disasters

March 7, 2025 - By iowaview

As we continue moving through the series of lessons of the 2024 Earth Observation Day poster, “Earth Science Everywhere.” Today we will examine the disaster management lesson, “Exploring Disaster Management: Learning about natural hazards to prepare and prevent natural disasters”. This lesson is about natural hazards in the environment. To begin students first will explore the volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens. Afterwards, they will look at the potential for natural hazards in the local community. This lesson fulfills the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) performance expectation MS-ESS2-4.

Lesson Plan Background Information:

On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted, causing widespread devastation across the surrounding landscape. An infrared, false-color image, captured on August 26, 1986, by Landsat 5, shows the eruption’s aftermath. The image reveals damage caused by the eruption, including areas of barren land and the destruction of dense forests. Disaster mapping is crucial in understanding the long-term environmental impact of natural and human-made disasters. It also aids in monitoring the gradual environmental recovery process.

Image 1: What’s going on in this picture? An Image from the lesson plan

This lesson teaches about natural hazards and disasters from a global perspective, and also helps bring awareness to the natural hazards at their local level. By having local knowledge about natural hazards, students are better prepared as they make choices in their communities. In the first activity, students learn essential vocabulary words. The vocabulary helps students differentiate between a natural hazard (an environmental phenomenon that has the potential to impact humans and their environment) and a natural disaster (the negative impact on a human community after an actual occurrence of a natural hazard).

Summary of the Lesson Plan

Lesson: Part 1

To examine these ideas, students will use Mt. St. Helens as a case study. Students view a satellite image taken shortly after the Mt. St. Helens volcanic eruption and then will tell what is happening in the image (see Image 1). To help reinforce the vocabulary concepts, students can play an online game or complete a print handout (see Image 4).

Image 2: A screenshot from the NASA Earth Observatory Page

Next, students will continue learning about Mt. St. Helens by reading, “Devastation and Recovery at Mt. St. Helens.” They will also view a time-lapse video showing images from 1979-2016. Students can complete another short online quiz or printout to assess reading comprehension. Wrapping up the Mt. St. Helens lesson, students will use Google Earth to explore the site of the volcano’s eruption. The teacher is encouraged to discuss how satellite imagery has been a major technological breakthrough for disaster management. It has allowed scientists a new way to monitor changes, which helps track hazards and disasters. Example: images before the eruption, in the aftermath (to assess the damage), and in the recovery phase. Share with students that the Landsat satellite has a new image every 16 days.

Lesson: Part 2

Part two of the lesson transitions to a local focus. This part focuses on identifying the significant risks of natural disasters based on the occurrence of local natural hazards. It is important to emphasize that natural hazards can occur in any region of the country. While we can’t stop natural hazards from happening, we can be prepared for them when they occur.

One way we can be prepared for natural hazards is to know the most significant risks in our local community. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) defines natural hazards as environmental phenomena that have the potential to impact societies and the human environment. FEMA created a web map for the US that scores every county based on natural hazards and community resiliency. The FEMA National Risk Index Map can help communities understand their natural hazard risks and their expected disaster impacts.

Image 3: The user interface of the FEMA National Risk Index Tool

First, students will learn about 18 common natural hazards. Next, they will estimate which hazards are most likely to happen in their community. After students write down their hazards, they will talk with a partner about their choices. Then there will be a class discussion of the community’s hazards. Next, students will be introduced to the FEMA National Risk Index website; please review the lesson plan for more details. As the class wraps up, emergency management careers will be briefly discussed. A final online game or printable quiz is available to test students’ natural hazards knowledge from the lesson.