Coastal Heritage Curriculum Connection
Explore Curriculum Connection guides, which are written to accompany each issue of Coastal Heritage, a quarterly publication of the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium.
Coastal Heritage, Summer 2007 issue: Will Climate Change Devastate Coastal Property Insurance?
Focus Questions
- How is my community at risk of a hurricane?
Use the Curriculum Connection and current issue of Coastal Heritage to address these S.C. Inquiry Curriculum Standards
(2nd Grade) Identify safety precautions that one should take during severe weather conditions.
(4th Grade) Summarize the conditions and effects of severe weather phenomena (including thunderstorms, hurricanes, and tornadoes) and related safety concerns.
(6th Grade) Summarize the relationship of the movement of air masses, high- and low-pressure systems, and frontal boundaries to storms (including thunderstorms, hurricanes, and tornadoes) and other weather conditions.
(8th Grade) Identify and illustrate geologic features of South Carolina and other regions of the world through the use of imagery (including aerial photography and satellite imagery) and topographic maps.
Lesson Links
Exploring the Atmosphere-Hydrosphere Interaction
1. Making Observations and Inferences:
a) Students read topological maps of their neighborhood to predict the effect of sea-level rise due to global climate change.
b) Students extrapolate the effects of climate change to the effects of coastal areas around the world. They identify places prone to flood around the globe and compare these places with the locations of night lights over the Earth.
2. Constructing Models: Students explore the levels of destruction caused by different category hurricane events and develop a multimedia presentation show including pictures, video clips, etc.
3. Analyze the Risk: Check out NOAA’s Historic Hurricane Viewer to explore how often SC is hit by hurricanes of different classes. You can compare which state appears to run a larger risk for being the target of Category 1-5 hurricanes by using the “Climatology” selection and query options of this innovative software.
4. Evaluating and Predicting: Visit FEMA’s Map Information Platform’s on-line mapping tool to create flood and hurricane maps of your area. Type your school or home address into the “Map Viewer” on the right to identify past floods and hurricanes that have historically affected it. Print maps to develop a plan for evacuating if a hurricane strikes your area. Be sure to consider the relief of the landscape, location of major roads and interstates, and location of streams and other bodies of water.
5. Assess Your Home for Hurricane Preparedness: Review resources offered in this issue to design a checklist of home hurricane preparedness. Using your checklist, evaluate your home’s preparedness. Repeat this process with your family’s homes or places of work. Find the top five most common issues and develop a brochure to demonstrate the nature of these risks and suggest strategies to address these in homes and other buildings. Present these ideas to the classroom or during a Family Science Night prior to hurricane season.