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Floods Lesson Plan
The Floods lesson plan provides teachers and students with an opportunity to investigate how floods occur and how to stay safe during a flood through individual or classroom activities.
This lesson challenges students to learn more about floods by asking them to:
An Assessment Guide for teachers is also included within this lesson plan.
Key Learning Areas
The Key Learning Areas (KLAs) for this lesson plan include:
- English
- Mathematics
- SOSE (research, mapping)
- The Arts
- Science
Objectives
The objectives of this lesson plan are to ensure that students are able to:
- understand how floods occur
- begin to learn that there are different levels/types of flooding
- create a map outlining the various areas in Australia that have had major floods
- develop their knowledge of flood prone areas in Australia.
Please note: This lesson can be modified to incorporate other KLAs and to meet the needs of the students and specific content taught.
Get the Facts
Students should revisit the Floods – Get the Facts page and the Floods – Ready and Able page and pay particular attention to:
- the three common types of floods that affect Australia (slow-onset, rapid-onset and flash-flooding)
- floods are not always caused by rain
- what to do before a flood, during floods and after flood waters have receded
- what is meant by flood prevention or reduction strategies?
Resources
Students should have access to an Atlas, an on-line map or a blank outline map of Australia.
Additional flood resources
- Bureau of Meteorology – Floods page
- Earth Science Australia - Floods
- Geoscience Australia – What is a Flood?
Also check your State and Territory Emergency Services websites.
Take time to investigate!
Students can investigate floods individually, in pairs or groups to find the answers to the following:
- How do floods occur?
- Are there different types of floods? If so how many, and what is the difference between them?
- Is there a difference in how much warning time we have for each of the flood types?
- Apart from rainfall, what are the other types of disasters that can cause floods to occur?
Find a list of notable floods in Australia from 1970 to 2007. Use your blank outline map of Australia, an on-line map or an atlas to:
- Locate each major flood event and mark it on the outline map.
- Are there any patterns? If so, what would cause an area to flood more often than others?
- What would be some effective flood prevention strategies for these areas?
Students can also look at other countries (such as the Netherlands) and how they have coped and lived with floods for centuries. What are some of the strategies they have put in place to make flooding a part of their lives? Select one of these strategies (e.g. dykes, amphibious homes) and give a short presentation on this.
Assessment guide
Teachers can assess with questioning, through group discussion and direct observation how students are able to answer the Take Time to Investigate! questions.
To make learning interactive, students could be broken into groups, assigned a set of questions and then present their answers to the classroom.
Allow some time for each group to formulate their research and to discuss how they would react to their situation in order to survive and assist others before they present their findings.
Teachers can also observe individual participation in each of the groups as they present their responses.