HAZARDS AND DISASTERS!!

What things in your environment are hazardous to you? In New Zealand we have things like earthquakes, in Britain we have killer heat waves. But not all hazards and disasters are natural. Sometimes people place themselves or others in situations that are hazardous, we might build too close to the sea and worry about erosion or have our houses protected from rivers by narrow stop banks that may give out.

There will no doubt be stories in your community of disasters that have happened in your part of the world. We need to remember that disasters are called disasters because they have affected someone somewhere - so while studying this topic keep that in mind and be a bit sensitive about it.

Choose one hazard - something that could be dangerous or a disaster where nature and humans have been involved.

Write your own newspaper article about what happened, explain what the problem was e.g. heavy rainfall in the local catchment area, blocked drains and an unusually high tide lead to flooding. You may draw diagrams to help you show what happened. What was the effect on the people involved and the environment where it happened? Could it have been prevented? Were people prepared or did the event happen too quickly?

Compare the sorts of things NZ and British people see as natural hazards.

National Curriculum areas covered:
New Zealand - Level 4
Science	Social Studies	English
Planet Earth and beyond 1,4 plus additional AOs depending on the hazard chosen	Strand A1,2 Strand C1,2 Strand E2	Writing 3,6
Britain - Stage 3
Science	Geography
Materials and their properties 2fgh	Place 1abcde, 5ab Thematic study 7abcde, 8abcd, 9abc, 15cd