TeachersFirst's Hurricane Resources
Other TeachersFirst Special Topics Collections
This collection of reviewed resources from TeachersFirst is selected to help teachers and students understand hurricanes and the historic events surrounding major hurricanes. Explore these resources during a unit on weather or disasters and include related projects and classroom activities. Classrooms in hurricane-prone areas may want to stop to observe anniversaries of local hurricane history or even to conduct local history projects in conjunction with some of these starter resources. Turn frightening natural disasters into positive learning using the background on these helpful sites.
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Weather Underground - Hurricane and Tropical Cyclones
Grades
6 to 12
tag(s): disasters (43), hurricanes (40), weather (205)
In the Classroom
Introduce the class to the most current hurricanes forming with a projector or interactive whiteboard. Challenge students to find similar hurricanes from the past and ask them to make a prediction about the current one. Have them prove their predictions using a tool like the interactive Venn Diagram Three Circle,reviewed here, or the Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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When Nature Strikes: Science of Natural Hazards - NBC Learn
Grades
5 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): earthquakes (51), floods (12), hurricanes (40), natural disasters (21), scientists (69), tornadoes (17), tsunamis (18), volcanoes (67), weather (205)
In the Classroom
Use this site as an anticipatory set or "activator" to introduce a unit or lesson on the weather. Divide students into cooperative learning groups to explore the site. Have each group choose a video to use as a launching pad for further study. Challenge them to use TurboNote, reviewed here, which is a Chrome extension for taking notes online on the video while watching it. Have students create an annotated, narrated image, including text boxes and related links, using a tool such as Thinglink, reviewed here. Place the videos on your classroom website or blog for students to explore on their own. Flip your instruction, and have your scientists watch the videos before class time to build background knowledge. Review nonfiction reading strategies with students before reading the transcripts. Have students investigate STEM careers by researching the jobs of the scientists interviewed in the videos.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Interactives & Simulations: Weather, Climate & Atmosphere Education - UCAR Center for Science Education
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): arctic (46), atmosphere (29), carbon dioxide (15), climate (93), climate change (70), hurricanes (40), solar energy (40), sun (69), trees (30)
In the Classroom
Introduce Interactives & Simulations on an interactive whiteboard or projector then allow students to explore on their own. Be sure to provide a link on your class website or blog for students to explore at home. Have students create an annotated image including text boxes and related links using a tool such as Thinglink, reviewed here, to demonstrate information learned from this site. Alternatively students could create a word cloud of the important terms they learn from this site using a tool such as Wordle, reviewed here, or WordItOut, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Create-a-Cane! - University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Grades
4 to 10tag(s): hurricanes (40), weather (205)
In the Classroom
Use this site on a projector or interactive whiteboard to discuss and informally assess prior knowledge as you start a study of hurricanes and weather. Create a link to Create-a-Cane on classroom computers for student use as a center. Have students create a simple infographic sharing their findings using Easel.ly, reviewed here, or Venngage, reviewed here. Have students create maps using Animaps, reviewed here, to track hurricanes during hurricane season. Students can add text, images, and location stops with Animaps!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Hurricanes - Curriculumbits
Grades
4 to 8tag(s): hurricanes (40), weather (205)
In the Classroom
Have students do a comparison of two famous American hurricanes using PicFont reviewed here. Challenge students to upload a copyright-safe photo, and then detail the effects of the storm as if it were a news report.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Sky Diary - Chris Kidler
Grades
2 to 7This site includes advertising.
tag(s): careers (146), hurricanes (40), tornadoes (17), weather (205)
In the Classroom
Share information from the site on your interactive whiteboard during weather, career, or storm preparedness units. Challenge students to create an avatar using a photo or other image (legally permitted to be reproduced). The avatars can be used to explain the development of hurricanes or tornadoes, or severe weather safety instructions. Use a site such as FotoFlexer, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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GeoCube - GeoCube
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): earth (223), earthquakes (51), ecology (133), energy (210), environment (322), extinction (4), forests (34), hurricanes (40), landforms (49), maps (295), mountains (16), natural disasters (21), natural resources (58), ozone (8), pollution (65), religions (69), transportation (46), tsunamis (18), volcanoes (67), water (132), wetlands (11)
In the Classroom
Explore one of the subtopics on GeoCube with your class on the interactive whiteboard. Discover different aspects of the world through the subtopics. Use the text as a basis to find another text, either narrative or expository, and compare and contrast the knowledge. You might want to allow students to investigate the different topics on their own at a learning station. Language arts, social studies, and science teachers can use the information found on GeoCube to build background knowledge for students before studying a unit. Introduce a unit on the environment by reading and viewing the videos for waste and pollution, water resources, energy resources, deforestation, species extinction, and climate change. Physical science teachers can use GeoCube as a unique way to introduce volcanoes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and conflicts in the earth's systems. These are just a few of the 54 subtopics your will find on GeoCube. ESL/ELL and learning support will all enjoy and benefit from viewing and reading GeoCube.Use the GeoCube idea for students to present information they research on any science or social studies topic. Adapt it slightly, having students create foldable visual aids using FoldPlay, reviewed here, or interactive video cubes using YouCube, reviewed here. YouCube needs to access YouTube, so may not be accessible at school.
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Forces of Nature - National Geographic
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): earth (223), earthquakes (51), hurricanes (40), tornadoes (17), volcanoes (67)
In the Classroom
Use this site for students to create awareness sheets that may help the public in the event of a natural disaster. Students can also create public service announcements to help the public. Evaluate the school and community emergency preparedness plan using the information about these forces of nature. Use the information to create a sample emergency kit that all households should have in case of emergency. Make it a multimedia project by having students create online books using a tool such as Bookemon, reviewed here, to create an informative book about the weather phenomenon that they studied.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Stormpulse - Stormpulse
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): hurricanes (40), weather (205)
In the Classroom
Watch storm movement and predict potential path. Use archives to determine common paths, areas where storms are more prevalent, change in numbers of hurricanes in different decades, etc. Use this site as a springboard for further research and better understanding of causes of hurricanes, factors that change the movement, destruction from hurricanes, or how best to prepare for hurricanes. Students can create traditional (poster, bulletin board) or multimedia presentations (newscasts, wiki, blog) on storms or even "create" a mythical storm of the future that follows predictable patterns, documenting it on a class weatherwiki.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Hurricane Hunters Association - Hurricane Hunter Association
Grades
4 to 12A link to a "Hurricane Hunters Gift shop" is found on the main page and students should be advised to avoid such an advertisement. The site requires Flash for storm updates. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
tag(s): hurricanes (40), weather (205)
In the Classroom
Compare numbers of hurricanes of various years. Plot locations, and storm paths on the same chart (or in Google Earth) to determine the origination point and landfall or end point of the hurricanes to draw conclusions. Use the information to determine the physical characteristics of the hurricanes (instead of looking them up in an encyclopedia). Determine the areas of the world where hurricanes occur in order to understand factors responsible for hurricane formation. Have students track a current hurricane and use information learned on this site to predict the spot where it will make landfall and provide reasoning for their choice.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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NOVA: Science Now - Hurricanes - PBS
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): hurricanes (40), weather (205)
In the Classroom
Be sure to check out the "Teachers Guide." There you can click on "Classroom Activities" to find a lesson plan, additional links, and explicit standards. Use the additional links included with the lesson plan for students to do further research about hurricanes. Have them work in pairs to research various "famous" hurricanes and add them to a class "disaster" or "weather" wiki.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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NOVA: Science Now - Stronger Hurricanes - PBS
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): climate (93), climate change (70), hurricanes (40)
In the Classroom
What an excellent website to use if your class is studying climate, weather, or Hurricane Katrina. Use an interactive whiteboard (or projector) to share the video clips with your class. Don't forget to turn up the volume. After viewing the video clips, have your students write a letter or blog entry explaining their fictitious "experience" with a hurricane, using three facts that they learned from the video clip. Or turn down the sound and have students write and perform a news-story style narration of their own for a video clip from the site.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Hurricanes - BBC
Grades
1 to 8tag(s): weather (205)
In the Classroom
You must try an interactive whiteboard to share the animated guide to hurricanes with your students - wow! It is very easy to understand and extremely informative. The animated guide truly helps students understand the complexities of hurricanes.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Extreme Weather: Hurricanes - Nicole Koonce, Jennifer Conlon
Grades
3 to 8tag(s): disasters (43), hurricanes (40), weather (205)
In the Classroom
Further weather lessons or emergency procedures could be a spinoff from this lesson design.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Web Weather for Kids - University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Grades
3 to 6tag(s): hurricanes (40), weather (205)
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Severe and Hazardous Weather - University of Illinois
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): floods (12), hurricanes (40), tornadoes (17), weather (205)
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Visualize the Storm - CNN
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): weather (205)
In the Classroom
This site would be useful in any class that discusses the forces of nature, whether it be a Government class or a science class. Open the virtual tour via interactive whiteboard or projector, and play the demonstration for students. An example like this could be useful in a class discussing government responses to natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina. In order for students to understand the concept of appropriate response, a refresher on the actual power of a hurricane would be useful. And of course any science teacher could use this at the beginning of a unit on the forces of nature to insure all students have the same basic knowledge of hurricanes.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Hurricane & Tropical Storm Tracking
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): weather (205)
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