Help me plan a Katrina unit for my 7th Grade Social Studies class:

[rucky]

I want to integrate with science & health: Students will present the problem (pre-hurricane), explain what happened - long and short-term effects, and discuss what could've happened differently to save lives.

I'm kicking around doing a roleplay with groups of students representing Federal govt, local/state govt, NGOs and citizenry.

For sure I'm compiling a set of newspaper articles that best summarize the events from many different perspectives.

Any links and suggestions would be helpful.

[msongs]

1. here are some tips:

do this in sequence:

One student read a bit of the times-picayune article on likely NO disaster.

one student reads report on bush funding cutbacks.

one student role plays weather service 48 hr warning of strike on NO.

another student plays second weather person warning 24 hrs of catastrophic strike on NO.

another student plays media warning as it happens of impending disaster of huge magnitude as hurricane ravages LA and MS.

keep adding more reports and students until at the very end the student playing bush comes in wearing his golf outfit and says "how come nobody told me about this?"

Msongs
www.msongs.com

[rucky]

4. LOL I have the perfect candidate for Bush

there's one in every class.

I like the reading of different reports. time to get on the google.

[Citizen Jane]

2. Not sure how to integrate this, but

I am teaching a course on ancient cities this semester and was talking about location yesterday. Many people are saying those in New Orleans "deserved it" for living in such an untenable geographic location. (Note, I am NOT one of those people!).

Yesterday I read bits of Vitruvius' De Architectura, Book 1, Chapter 4 where he talks about the location of a city when starting from scratch. Unfortunately, as I pointed out to my students, ideal locations are not always available.

So, I would encourage discussing the location of different U.S. cities in addition to New Orleans and exploring the positives and negatives of their locations and WHY some reasons for building tend to trump others (trade almost always wins over whether a spot is actually fit for human habitation). You might give small groups each a city and have them research why it is located where it is, what the positives and negatives are, etc., and then have them report back to the class as part of a preparation for getting into the specifics of New Orleans.

[rucky]

6. That'll work well. think Babylon & Alexandria...

all the great ancient cities were on a river and/or on the coast. they learned that last year, so it'll transition well.

[mzteris]

3. here.......

http://www.cln.org/themes/hurricanes.html

[rucky]

5. Awesome! that'll cover the science part. n/t