Sept. 19-25, 2013, Current Events Lesson Plan
Current event:
A 7.7-magnitude earthquake recently struck southwest Pakistan’s Balochistan province. At least 325 people are known to be dead from collapsed buildings, and there are reports of hundreds of people wounded and many others trapped under rubble. The earthquake caused an island to appear in the Arabian Sea a little more than 1/2 mile (1 kilometer) off the coast near the port of Gwadar. The quake was so powerful that it was felt across Pakistan; in Hyderabad, India; and in India’s capital, New Delhi. In Pakistan’s commercial center, Karachi, some 390 miles (680 kilometers) from the quake’s epicenter, office workers were forced to evacuate shaking buildings.
Objective:
An earthquake is a shaking of the ground caused by a sudden shift in Earth’s rocky outer shell. A severe earthquake may release 10,000 times as much energy as did the first atomic bomb. The shaking can damage buildings, bridges, and other structures so badly that they fall down. Earthquakes can also cause avalanches, landslides, and tsunamis. Scientists think that several million earthquakes occur every year. However, only about 150 are strong enough to cause significant loss of life. Earthquakes almost never kill people directly. Instead, they cause death or injury through falling objects and the collapse of buildings, bridges, and other structures. In 2010, an earthquake in Haiti killed about 316,000 people. Scientists cannot predict the exact time, place, and magnitude (strength) of an earthquake. However, they can often make forecasts about the likelihood of a strong quake for regions with well-known earthquake histories. The Behind the Headlines news story and related World Book articles explore earthquakes and other natural disasters and Pakistan.
Words to know:
- Disaster
- Earthquake
- Haiti earthquake of 2010
- Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011
- Moment magnitude
- New Madrid fault
- Pakistan
- Richter magnitude
- San Francisco earthquake of 1906
- Seismology
- Tsunami
- Tsunami of 2004
Discussion topics:
1. Ask your students what they know about Pakistan. (Students might say that Pakistan is in southern Asia; almost all of Pakistan’s people practice Islam; Islamabad is Pakistan’s capital; Karachi is its largest city; mountains and deserts cover much of Pakistan; or Pakistan became independent in 1947.)
2. Ask your students what they can do to protect themselves in an earthquake. (Students might say that they can drop to the ground and take cover under a table or other sturdy piece of furniture; stay away from windows or anything that could fall, such as a bookcase; stay inside until you are sure it is safe to exit; or move away from buildings, if outside.)
3. Ask your students to debate the following statement: “Because people often live in areas other than where they grew up, schools should teach students what to do in any natural disaster.”
4. Ask your students to use the World Book’s Timelines feature to create a timeline of the history of Pakistan. (Students may wish to use the History section of World Book’s Pakistan article for help.) Or, students can use the articles in the “Words to know” section above to create a timeline of famous earthquakes.