An informative and compelling book for ages 12 to 15 about both the science and human sides of natural disasters, full of hands-on investigative activities and research projects along with real-world connections that encourage kids to dive deeper into a topic that directly affects them.
News reports from around the world offer detailed descriptions of wildfires, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, and more. While these kinds of events might seem horrifically random, scientists can explain quite a lot about why they happen, how they develop, how we can try to prevent them, and how we can predict where and when they'll happen next. The Science of Natural Disasters: When Nature and Humans Collide examines the science behind earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and wildfires:
• Use historical and current events as case studies, such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the floods in China in 1931, and the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815, the Galveston, Texas, hurricane in 1900, and the Daulatpur-Saturia tornado in 1989.
• Kids explore natural disasters using real-world data to work those critical-thinking skills as they brainstorm innovative solutions for the problems facing our planet today and in the future.
• Many different kinds of careers are related to studying, preventing, warning about, and combatting natural disasters, from meteorologists to municipal program leaders to geologists to boots on the ground-kids will explore how different roles that contribute to our understanding and prevention of hurricanes, floods, and wildfires.
• Science-minded STEM activities such as assessing the flood risk of the town where you live, researching a wildfire of historical significance, and engineering hurricane resistant cities encourage readers to think like scientists while essential questions, fascinating facts, links to online resources, and more encourage readers to explore the ever-evolving dynamics of this incredible planet.
