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In this game, students will learn about the causes of droughts, their effects on communities, and adaptation and mitigation strategies.
Students play the role of community members and work with their teams to invest in different resilience strategies to prepare for and respond to a drought.
The resource provides a brief video explanation of the game, a teacher guide, teacher slides, and PDFs of all game materials, including a game board, role cards, nametags, spinners, and reservoir markers.
Students will love the teamwork and practicing their communication, reasoning, and negotiation skills.
The Teacher Guide is detailed and even includes a teacher script.
Additional Prerequisites
This game is part of a larger HEART Force curriculum. The resource recommends that classes use this after completing the Colorado Drought Lesson for middle or high school, which is linked at the top of the resource.
Students can play the game in one 40-60 minute class period.
Teachers must print, cut, and assemble materials, including water reservoir level markers, role cards, role nametags, and spinners.
Each student group will need a graduated cylinder and a pipette.
The resource is designed specifically for Colorado, but teachers can modify it to focus on other areas that experience drought by changing the trivia questions and adjusting the community roles if necessary.
The link for the HEART Force Community Resilience Expo Curriculum is broken. It can be found here.
Differentiation
Teachers should group students into three teams. Large teams encourage more cooperation and compromise.
Math classes can use this game to practice decision-making using probability and statistics.
Science classes can focus more on the causes and effects of droughts and the possible mitigation and adaptation strategies.
The Teacher Guide includes a list of closing reflection questions that teachers can use for individual written reflection, as a think-pair-share, or as a class discussion.
Scientist Notes
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
About the Partner Provider
CLEAN
The CLEAN Network is a professionally diverse community of over 630 members committed to improving climate and energy literacy locally, regionally, nationally, and globally in order to enable responsible decisions and actions. The CLEAN Network has been a dynamic group since 2008 and is now led by the CLEAN Leadership Board established in 2016.
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