When it comes to teaching about natural disasters, the continuous occurrence of new events make course preparation challenging. I have developed a method to stay up to date with new events in large section classes focused on natural disasters. This method provides a customized course structure and also includes active engagement from students.
A customized course structure, includes week long modules for each type of natural disaster and provide the ability to focus on an ongoing event. When it comes to staying up to date with new and recent events in the course, the focus is put on students. Students are divided in groups of 5-8 students and present a recent event including the geologic data and a hypothesis on how the costs and casualties could have been reduced.
This course structure also allows for in class group activities.