Hazards and Humans

Are you ready to explore the connection between weather and climate? Make models of flood protection and build an earthquake shake table! Learn how a seismologist predicts hazards and prevent damage using data analysis and maps.

This Accelerate level kit includes a full-color student workbook and a detailed teacher guide, with step-by-step instructions for both hands-on and reading-based activities designed to engage students in the topic of natural hazards. Both teacher and student will be able to open the box and start within minutes, and the kit will provide over 9 hours of engaging learning.

In this kit, the student will engage in these fun activities:

1. Analyze maps to find out where people are safest from natural hazards.
2. Learn how weather and climate are connected and how people reduce the impact of weather-related hazards.
3. Model different forms of flood protection and test how well they stop the flow of water.
4. Explore the ways people predict non-weather-related hazards and prevent damage from them.
5. Perform data analysis to predict natural hazards and protect people from them.
6. Test the ability of different types of structures to withstand earthquakes.

Use Hazards and Humans to answer questions such as:

• Where are people safest from natural hazards?
• How do weather and climate affect natural hazards?
• How do people prevent damage from natural hazards?
• How are natural hazards predicted?
• How do people use data to deal with natural hazards?

Your student is ready for this kit when:

• They have some understanding of basic weather terms like cloud, rain, snow, and wind.
• They know their own location in the world and acknowledge that people live in other places, too.
• They know that people can affect the environment, and that the environment can affect people and the things they build.
• They have some experience with identifying landforms and bodies of water.

Our Hazards and Humans curriculum kit is a part of the Science Unlocked Accelerate series and is recommended for grades 3-7.

Interested in learning more? Check out our Student Workbook Sample and Teacher Guide Sample!

The following are Wonder level Science Unlocked kits we suggest your student has completed prior to doing this kit:

• Weather Watch
• Go With the Flow
• Not-So-Solid Ground

More Information

• Safety Information (SDS)

This kit contains:

• 1 Foam Tray
• 1 Masking Tape
• 4 Modeling Doughs
• 1 Box of Paper Clips
• 1 Bag of Pebbles
• 8 Rubber Bands
• 1 Bag of Sand, Coarse
• 1 Bag of Sand, Fine
• 1 Box of Toothpicks
• 12 Zip-close Bags

Other items needed:

• Box the kit came in
• Coloring tools like crayons or colored pencils (Optional) 
• Sink or bathtub with running water and a drain plug or stopper
• Scissors

• Learning outcome: Analyze data, design solutions, and discover climate connections to understand how humans predict and prevent damage from natural hazards.
• NGSS science standards alignment

• 3-ESS2-2 Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different regions of the world.
• 3-ESS3-1 Make a claim about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of a weather-related hazard.
• 4-ESS3-2 Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans.
• MS-ESS3-2 Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.