Steps:
- Each group is assigned one of five types of natural hazards (tornado, flood, hurricane, earthquake, and volcanic eruption).
- BEFORE analyzing your hazard data, make a prediction about where the natural hazard is likely to occur based on the following guiding questions:
| Guiding Questions to Be Answered: 1. Which states or regions (midwest, southeast, west, etc.) do you predict are likely to experience this hazard in the future? 2. What is your initial reasoning for this prediction? 3. What evidence do you need to support this claim? |
3. Each group is given a map that corresponds to its assigned hazard from the resource
8.6L3Uncover_Student_HazardDistributionMaps. (Given)
Note: The maps provide frequency data by state for each natural hazard.
4. Analyze and interpret the data by looking for patterns in the numbers for each state by answering the following guiding questions:
| Guiding Questions to Be Answered: 1. Does the hazard occur in every state? How much variation do you see in the number of events? 2. Which states have similar numbers? Are they neighboring states? 3. Where are the most events? Where are the least events? |
5. Decide on a ranking system for your data. Now do this by grouping the range of values for the natural hazard into three categories (You decide the numbers that define the ranges).
- highly likely (red) : For example 7-10
- somewhat likely (orange) : For example 4-6
- less likely (yellow) : For example 1-3
6. Color in the states on your map to match your ranking system. (You may leave states uncolored -white- if there are few or no events. For most natural hazards, some areas of the map will be left white.)