Youth Climate Story: Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico (Amira)

• This video features Amira, who discusses how Hurricane Maria affected her family and community in Puerto Rico.
• She discusses the challenges of living in an area affected by a climate disaster, the loss of jobs, food insecurity, the loss of power and water, and having to leave her home.
• A three-part hurricane mapping activity and a guided student worksheet are linked below this video.
  

Positives

• The video may help students empathize with people who have experienced natural disasters in other locations. 
• The activity that is linked below the video utilizes real-world data to analyze.

Additional Prerequisites

• The video is available to view without an account, but teachers must create a free account to access the lesson plan.

Differentiation

• The mapping activity could be used in a math or science class, as students interpret weather station models, complete isobar lines on a map, and convert units.
  
• Consider having students discuss risks to their local community and then write a reflection paper about how they would feel if their home was damaged by a storm.
  
• Students could consider the consequences of hurricanes (e.g., migration, drownings, loss in property value, damage to infrastructure) and could investigate possible engineering solutions to some of these impacts.
• When completing the student worksheets, teachers should spend time working through a few practice examples of the weather station models and isobar drawings as a whole group, as these concepts are likely new.