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Historical Droughts Activity

Goals/Outcomes

  1. Collect personal stories of droughts.
  2. Use paleoclimate data to determine when droughts have occurred in the past and how long they lasted.

Teacher Preparation

  1. Provide an interview protocol for students to use when interviewing others about past droughts.
    • When was the drought?
    • How long did it last?
    • What were the effects of the drought?
  2. Review paleoclimate proxy data measurement methods PowerPoint files

    paleo_proxy_observations_1.ppt

    paleo_proxy_observations_2.ppt

  3. Locate historical drought information on the internet.

Activities

  1. Develop an interview protocol to use in interviewing four older individuals. Try to interview at least one person who is not related to the student conducting the interview.
    • Remember to get permission to include the information in your paper.
    • Respect the individuals wishes in terms of using the information.
  2. Write a report describing your interviews. Don’t include any names or relationships of any of the interviewees; simply report the facts about the drought and their story. Be sure to summarize all the information asked for in the interview.
  3. Share the interview results with the class.
  4. Visit the following web sites to gather information on historical droughts.

    http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/drought/drght_home.html

    http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/drought/drght_laird96.html

    http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/image/pdsi/pdsi_tr.mov

    Compare the three droughts in the 20th Century:
    • Length
    • Area covered
    • Economic impact
    • Land cover changes
  5. Review the information on paleodroughts at the above websites.
  6. Explain two (2) of the following graphs.

    What do the graphs tell us about past doughts in terms of length and land cover changes?
    • Kettle Lake Williams, ND
    • Elk Lake, MN
    • Moon Lake, ND

Assessment

  1. Written report of interviews summarizing all questions in the interview protocol
  2. Written or verbal comparison of 20th Century droughts
  3. Summary of methods of determining paleoclimates
  4. Explanation of two of the graphs of historical climate data
  5. Revisit the PBL sheets for additions, deletions, corrections