Why did more people die in Nepal compared to New Zealand?

The Nepal (2015) and New Zealand (2011) earthquakes offer two contrasting case studies. With so many news stories about these two examples, I planned a Year 8 lesson that asks students to investigate the effects of the two earthquakes and then explain why more people died in Nepal compared to New Zealand.

The first task asks the students to become detectives who need to find evidence to complete case study files (image below) from information sheets. One half of the class works on the Nepal earthquake whilst the other half works on the New Zealand earthquake before switching and teaching someone else the half that they have studied.

Once they have completed their files, they then plan an answer to the main enquiry question in the form of a mind map. To stretch and challenge the most able students encourage them to include statistics as evidence or even manipulate their data.

Next I ask the students to choose a task (in comfort zone/stepping out of comfort zone/out of comfort zone) which all instruct the students to compare Nepal to New Zealand. It was interesting to see which students chose to step out of their comfort zones (not necessarily the most able) and it did take some encouraging to persuade students to not just take the easy road. Perhaps with more practice the students would become more confident to step out of their comfort zones.

 

Finally, the students assess their own work by using assessment sheets with ideas of WWW/EBI description phrases. When marking their work it became apparent that many students had not used evidence in their answers and that they needed to improve their 'PEEL' technique. This was then improved during their 'green pen time' when they respond to feedback.