ATL: Stop Disasters with the UNDRR

Play & Learn to Stop Disasters

This is another activity I had planned for Grade 6 homeroom, but we not have homeroom during our online sessions... I might get my Grade 6s to do this with me, as we are just finishing an educational game design unit anyway.

This session introduces students to the UNDRR (United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction) and has them play a game about preparing for environmental disasters, including tsunamis, earthquakes, floods, wildfires and hurricanes.
First they are introduced to the UNDRR:

Then students will think a little bit more about natural disasters and who they impact. Students will also have a chance to talk about any natural disasters they have been involved with (I was in NYC during hurricane Sandy, and lived in Atlanta when we had some mini tornados...)

I played the game myself in preparation and it was pretty good. Not only do you build different buildings in your environment, but you can do upgrades, such as giving the building a better foundation, or providing emergency training for workers in the building. I only tried the easy level, but will try a harder one, when my students are playing.

At the end of the game I was going to use the following reflection questions for a think-pair-share/class discussion, but as we are moving online, I will turn this into a little exit ticket. I'll also add some space for them to upload screenshots of their game play.

Here's  the:

• Link the play the game
• Link to my presentation