A WAVE OF LEARNING

This is our first blog post since returning from winter break, and it feels good to be back in the rhythm of things. From here on out, blog posts will return to a biweekly schedule for the remainder of the year, keeping you up to date on what’s happening in our classroom and where things are headed next.

Where We Were

Coming back from winter break, we jumped right into our Natural Hazards unit. To anchor our learning, we focused on the tragic 2011 tsunami in Japan, using it as a real-world phenomenon to guide our questions and investigations.

Over the past two weeks, students have explored:

• How tsunamis are caused

• How tsunami waves form and move through the ocean

• Models that help explain wave behavior

• The risks tsunamis pose to coastal communities

We wrapped up this portion of the unit with a “quiz” that functioned as a performance task, where students applied what they learned to assess tsunami risk rather than just recall facts. This helped us see how well students could use evidence and reasoning to explain real-world impacts.

Images from our wave models lesson.

Where We Are

This week, our focus shifted to the human side of natural hazards. Students explored the small fishing village of Ryoishi, Japan, which was heavily impacted by the 2011 tsunami, and compared it to Kamaishi, a much larger coastal city nearby.

Through this comparison, students analyzed:

• How community size and geography affect risk

• Different engineering solutions used to reduce tsunami damage

• Why some solutions work better in certain locations than others

We also began a lab activity focused on tsunami communication strategies, examining how warnings are shared and how effective communication can save lives. This lab will be completed next week as students continue analyzing and refining their thinking.

Where We Are Going

Over the next two weeks, we will be wrapping up the Natural Hazards unit. The final assessment will be an engineering design project and tsunami preparedness plan, where students will design solutions and explain how communities can better prepare for future tsunami events.

After this unit concludes, Mr. Roberto, who returned from winter break on the 20th, will be taking over instruction as we transition into the Weather & Climate unit. This is one of my favorite units of the year!

Enjoy the impending snowstorm! ❄️

If you have any questions or want to connect further, please feel free to reach out at curtis_catwood@conestogavalley.org. You can also follow our classroom adventures on Instagram at @classwithcatwood, where I share updates and snapshots of what we’re learning.

Stay Gold,

Mr. Catwood