Floods and Droughts Learning Lab Lessons
Provided by: The Climate Initiative|Published on: May 24, 2024|Last updated: September 26, 2026
Grades: 9, 10, 11, 12
Type: Lesson Plans
Subjects: Earth and Space Sciences, Geography
Authors: The Climate Initiative
Location: North America > United States > Maine
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- In this 6-lesson unit, students will explore the causes and impacts of floods and droughts in their community.
- Students will learn about different kinds of floods, the role of soil in floods and droughts, local drought conditions, how droughts and floods impact sociocultural, economic, and ecological contexts, how to write a case study about floods and droughts in their area, analyze data for droughts and floods in the United States, create a photojournalism project to chronicle local climate change impacts, interview community members about their perspective about local climate change impacts, and create a community action plan to inform others about flooding and droughts in their area.
- This is a companion resource for the student lab.
Teaching Materials
Positives
- The photojournalism project will allow students to express their creativity as they explore the impacts of flooding and droughts in their area.
- Students will love exploring the background information in the Bitmoji classroom.
Prerequisites
- The links for UNU 5 facts on Drought, some of the case study examples, and the examples of physical structures in Lesson 6 are broken.
- When reading about the destruction of extreme weather conditions, students, especially those near the coast, may need support in processing emotions.
- The optional teacher slides give valuable information and help users understand the content.
- Students should know how to support their claims with evidence.
- Students will need an account on National Geographic to read the article with photography tips.
- In the Teacher Slides for Lesson 5, teachers may want to change some of the references to wildfires to fit the context of floods and droughts.
Differentiation & Implementation
- To make math connections and localize the data activity, students can use local precipitation data to create visualizations that best represent the data.
- Students can use the Climate Visuals Gallery as a mentor resource as they work on their photojournalism project.
- Some students may benefit from working with a partner on the case study assignment.
The resource enables students to learn about floods and droughts. Students will explore floods and droughts through a variety of activities from graphing data to completing their own action project. The lessons on case studies and data will help students understand some of the ways scientists study these topics and come up with their conclusions. The resources provided are accurate and this resource is recommended for teaching.
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
Scientist Reviewed
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Our review process ensures that every resource in our library reflects the current state of climate science.
Learn about our review process →
