Lesson Plan: An Earthquake Waiting to Happen

Lesson Plan

Before Exploring

Have a class discussion about earthquakes: where they happen, how they are caused, and how people prepare for one. Students may review the information on the National Resources Canada website, or you might lead students through the key information.

Outline the Opportunity

Direct students to the topic Canada's Earthquakes and Tsunamis on the CBC Digital Archives website.  Have them review the clips titled "B.C.'s tsunami disaster", "The threat to British Columbia" and "Surviving the big one", in that order.

For each of the clips, students should focus on the information presented in the Did You Know? section. In groups of two or three, have students prepare a poster for the Emergency Preparedness Committee of the city of Vancouver, B.C. The poster must be visually appealing and identify a brief history of earthquake behaviour on the west coast, the present threat to Vancouver, and how to survive the big one. The purpose of the poster is to raise levels of awareness of members of the community who still haven't prepared themselves for the scientific eventuality of an earthquake.

Assessment Tip
You can assess student posters using the rubric on the download sheet An Earthquake Waiting to Happen?

Revisit and Reflect

Have the students present their posters to the class. Consider having students use the rubric to assess their own poster first, and then use it to judge the posters anonymously and choose the one whose message is clearest.