Tracking Hurricane News

Activity Sections

Overview

Students read news articles about Hurricane Irene, present information with classmates, and construct a timeline to describe the hurricane’s story over time and across geographic area, exploring what happened, how people were affected, and how they reacted.

Credits

Activity developed by Lisa Gardiner and Becca Hatheway at the UCAR Center for Science Education

Grade Level

Grades 7-12 (this activity can be modified depending on reading skills)

Time Required

2-4 class periods

Student Learning Goal

Students understand how data (information from news articles) about a natural hazard (a hurricane) can describe how people in coastal communities were warned, affected, and mitigated the impacts.

Student Objectives

Students read a newspaper article about Hurricane Irene and summarize key points.
Student groups present information about articles to the rest of the class.
Students communicate the story of Hurricane Irene on a timeline.

Education Standards

Next Generation Science Standards

MS ESS3B Natural Hazards; Earth and Human Activity
- PE 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.
HS ESS3B Natural Hazards; Earth and Human Activity
- PE HS ESS3-1 Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced human activity
HS ETS1B Developing possible solutions; Earth and Human Activity

Science and Engineering Practices: Analyzing and interpreting data, defining an engineering problem, considering solutions

Crosscutting Concepts: Cause and Effect, Stability and Change, Influence of Science Engineering and Technology on Society and the Natural World (All human activity draws on natural resources and has both short and long-term consequences, positive as well as negative, for the health of people and the natural environment)

National Geography Standards

Geography Standard 7: The physical processes that shape the patterns of Earth's surface
Geography Standard 15: How physical systems affect human systems
Geographic Skill 3: Organizing Geographic Information

Common Core Standards for English Language Arts

Instructions

Materials

Tracking Hurricane News PowerPoint for introduction
Worksheet A and Worksheet B (one copy for each student)
2-3 copies of each article below (or computers if students will read online)
Hurricane Irene menaces smaller islands of Bahamas (8/24/11)
In North Carolina, Less Than Dread as Storm Lopes Northward (8/24/11)
Hurricane Irene: “Extreme” risk to coastal mid-Atlantic, southern New England (8/24/11)
East Coast Battens Down for Arrival of Hurricane Irene (8/25/11)
Hurricane Irene hammers Bahamas islands (8/26/11)
Hurricane Irene continues path towards New York, Philadelphia, Boston and the rest of the Northeast (8/26/11)
Damage and Flooding Scar Atlantic Seaboard (8/27/11)
Recovery Is Slower in New York Suburbs (8/28/11)
A Soaked Vermont Awaits Even More Flooding (8/28/11)
Irene soaks Quebec (8/28/11)
Storm’s Push North Leaves Punishing Inland Floods (8/29/11)
Hurricane Irene: Quebec Slammed By Strong Winds, Thousands Without Power As Storm Moves Into Maritimes (8/29/11)

Directions

Introduction and motivation

Read a few of the news headlines aloud.
Have students to generate questions based on the news headlines. Post these questions in the classroom and revisit them at the end of the activity.
Introduce students to hurricanes and to Hurricane Irene, the subject of this case study. Hurricane Irene made landfall in many places as it traveled north, so it made news in many places. (See the Tracking Hurricane News PowerPoint. Each slide includes a URL for additional information.)
Tell students that, for this project, they will create a timeline of Hurricane Irene using news stories to explore the questions: How are communities affected when a hurricane hits a coastal area? How are people warned and how do they react?

Intelectual engagement

Familiarize students with Worksheet A and how to take notes from their articles. (Consider using one article as an example if students need to build understanding of this type of reading comprehension.)
Distribute one article to each student. If you wish students to work in pairs or groups (as outlined in Step 4 below) then make sure two or three students are reading each article.
Each student reads one article, takes notes on Worksheet A, and then discusses their notes with classmates who read the same article.
1. Give students a strategy for how they will deal with words they don’t know. One strategy might be to list words and then look them up. Or note unknown terms on the board.
2. Search for mapped locations mentioned in article.
3. You may wish for students to make powerpoint slides or other presentation materials that they will share with their classmates.
In a jigsaw method, student groups present information about their article to the rest of the class. During presentations, students in the audience take notes for their timeline (Worksheet B) and ask questions of the presenting group.

Use of evidence to critique claims

Each student makes the polished version of his or her timeline with posterboard or butcher paper and include a combination of detail, images, and quotes from each story. (Or, have the class make a timeline together with students contributing information from the article they read.)

Sense-making

Students post their timelines around the room and take a “field trip” to see what others added to their timelines.
Have the class return to the questions they generated at the start of the activity and consider how they would answer those.
Lead a student discussion, or have students disucss in groups, the methods that might help people stay safe from a hurricane including actions that people can take.

Adaptation for high interest/low reading level: Use headlines only and locations of articles and have them make the timeline with only headlines. Read several of the articles as a group and discuss how news covers weather stories like Hurricane Irene.

Background & Extensions

About Hurricane Irene

In late August 2011, Hurricane Irene traveled through the Caribbean and up the East Coast of the United States. It was an unusual storm because it made landfall many times along its path. This led to news coverage from many different areas.

As a tropical storm, Irene made landfall in St. Criox on August 20 and in Puerto Rico on August 21. Irene intensified to a Category 3 hurricane before making landfall in the Bahamas. Irene weakened to a Category 1 hurricane before making landfall in North Carolina on August 27 and weakened to a tropical storm while making landfall in New York and New Jersey on August 28. Irene continued to plow north as an extratropical cyclone, moving across Vermont and New Hampshire and into Quebec province on August 28 and 29.

About Hurricanes in the Atlantic

Hurricanes, the name for tropical cyclones in the Atlantic, are intense storms with high winds, torrential rains, and low pressure. Hurricanes in the Atlantic usually start as thunderstorms and other atmosphere disturbances in the tropical Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Africa and grow into tropical depressions. With high enough winds, a tropical depression becomes a tropical storm. With even stronger winds, the storm becomes a hurricane. Hurricanes rotate around an “eye” (a calm area with light winds and fair weather). When hurricanes come onshore, the heavy rain, flooding, strong winds, and large waves can cause massive damage In the Atlantic, hurricane season is June 1 until November 30 each year.

One reason that hurricanes take paths that curve either into the Gulf of Mexico or up the Atlantic Coast is because of the location of high and low pressure systems. The winds flowing around highs and lows can steer hurricanes. High pressure systems are the thickest parts of the atmosphere, while low pressure systems are the thinnest. The Bermuda High is an area of high pressure that moves east and west in the North Atlantic Ocean. During the Northern Hemisphere summer and fall, it sits over the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean, near Bermuda. Since hurricanes are steered by the winds around a high, the Bermuda High impacts the track and size of hurricanes. It can make them move up the east coast of the United States.

Why Is Weather in the News?

News media outlets (including newspapers, T.V. news, websites, blogs) carry stories about weather for several reasons. Of course, weather forecasts for the next several days are a staple in news (everyone want’s to know if they should bring an umbrella!) but when there is a severe weather event, news media outlets carry the story with different sorts of coverage. There are forecast reports, and also stories about how communities are preparing for the event and the devastation that the event caused.

Severe weather events such as hurricanes have paths that are predicted days in advance. The weather event is in the news for days or even weeks. The stories usually have an angle such as (1) reports of storm prediction from meteorologists, (2) reports of community warnings and preparations, (3) reports on the storm during the event, (4) reports of the aftermath – the people affected and their efforts to recover.

Extensions

Strengthen writing skills by having students write a story about Hurricane Irene based on the articles.
If a hurricane (or other severe weather event) happens during the school year, have students apply the skills learned through this activity to track the storm and its impacts through news reports.
Have students make a GIS Story Map out of their notes from each article to combine the timeline with the geographical context.