Students investigate how earthquakes, floods, storms, and wildfires change land and affect people, then use evidence from maps, erosion tests, and local observations to design ways to reduce harm in their community. Over 11 weeks, they build science understanding and problem-solving skills by creating an interactive local disaster guidebook display with maps, models, solution sketches, and family advisory pages. Through collaboration with emergency and parks partners, reflection after each design cycle, and a narrative from the point of view of someone facing a disaster, students connect Earth science to real community safety and communication.

Students investigate how earthquakes, floods, storms, and wildfires change land and affect people by analyzing maps, photos, local hazard examples, and evidence from erosion, water-flow, wind, and vegetation investigations. They apply science ideas to design, compare, and improve practical community safety solutions such as evacuation routes, defensible-space plans, safer structures, and emergency supply kits. Students communicate their understanding through an interactive disaster guidebook display, a public showcase, and a narrative piece written from the perspective of a family member, firefighter, or emergency planner using accurate science evidence. Throughout the project, they build collaboration, reflection, and problem-solving skills by using feedback, sharing team roles, and revising their work for a community audience.

Students will create investigation artifacts throughout the project, including hazard observation notes, erosion tray data charts, labeled local maps, solution sketches, and quick team prototypes for safer buildings, evacuation routes, defensible space, or emergency kits. They will also write a short narrative from the point of view of a family, firefighter, or emergency planner that shows how people prepare for and respond to a disaster using accurate science ideas. By the end, each team will produce an interactive local disaster guidebook display with student-made maps, advisory pages for neighborhood families, and a model or prototype explaining one hazard and how their solution reduces community risk. These products will be shared in a Hazard Hero Museum Walk where visitors interact with displays, listen to narrative readings, and give feedback on the usefulness of each team’s ideas.

Begin with a “Disaster Detectives” rotation where students explore hazard stations featuring local maps, before-and-after photos, erosion trays, weather images, and real emergency gear to notice how earthquakes, floods, storms, and wildfires change land and affect people. Invite a guest from the San Diego Office of Emergency Services or a local firefighter to introduce a realistic community challenge: how to reduce damage from natural hazards in the neighborhood. After the stations, have teams record patterns they observed, ask questions, and make quick predictions about which solutions might protect homes, parks, and roads. Close with a whole-group reveal of the driving question and a brief narrative prompt such as, “Imagine you are a child, firefighter, or emergency planner on the day a disaster warning is issued—what do you see, feel, and do first?”

Host a Hazard Hero Museum Walk where students transform the classroom into an interactive local disaster guidebook exhibit for families, classmates, and community partners such as emergency services, parks staff, and firefighters. Each team shares a map, erosion investigation, and model or prototype showing one hazard and how their solution reduces risk, then reads aloud a short narrative from the perspective of a family, firefighter, or emergency planner using science evidence. Visitors rotate through stations, ask questions, and leave feedback on advisory pages and solution ideas. End with a brief community reflection where students name what they learned about protecting neighborhoods from earthquakes, floods, storms, and wildfires.