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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When Nature Strikes: Science of Natural Hazards - NBC Learn
Grades
5 to 12
This site includes advertising.
tag(s): earthquakes (50), floods (12), hurricanes (35), natural disasters (21), scientists (70), tornadoes (16), tsunamis (18), volcanoes (63), weather (204)
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. Enhance their learning with the challenge to use YiNote, 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.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Create-a-Cane! - University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Grades
4 to 10tag(s): hurricanes (35), weather (204)
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 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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Sky Diary - Chris Kidler
Grades
2 to 7This site includes advertising.
tag(s): careers (151), hurricanes (35), tornadoes (16), weather (204)
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 (206), earthquakes (50), ecology (131), energy (207), environment (301), extinction (4), forests (33), hurricanes (35), landforms (47), maps (295), mountains (17), natural disasters (21), natural resources (57), ozone (8), pollution (63), religions (69), transportation (47), tsunamis (18), volcanoes (63), water (137), 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 (206), earthquakes (50), hurricanes (35), tornadoes (16), volcanoes (63)
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 (35), weather (204)
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 (35), weather (204)
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 (35), weather (204)
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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Hurricanes - BBC
Grades
1 to 8tag(s): weather (204)
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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Web Weather for Kids - University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Grades
3 to 6tag(s): hurricanes (35), weather (204)
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Hurricane & Tropical Storm Tracking
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): weather (204)
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Hurricane Guide - Miami Science Museum
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): weather (204)
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How Hurricanes Work - University of Wisconsin
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): weather (204)
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Case Study - Hurricane Andrew - University of Illinois
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): weather (204)
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Explanation of the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale - US Government
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): weather (204)
In the Classroom
Allow cooperative learning groups to explore this site during a lesson on Hurricanes and their categorization. Have groups explore the site, with the intentions of summarizing the information in a multimedia presentation. To show what they have learned from this site, challenge students to create an online infographic to share using Visme, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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National Hurricane Center - US Government
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): weather (204)
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