Lorraine Motola: Using Major Storms and Community Resilience in Disaster Response and Recovery at Metropolitan College of New York

The course syllabus distributed at the onset of the semester was overly ambitious. In an essence I should have used the material throughout the entire semester and will do so going forward. This program is geared to working adults, active military, law enforcement students as well as those seeking to enter the field of Disaster Management.

Topics not covered included Sea-Level Rise and Coastal Erosion. It was my intention, if course enrollment was up, to have brought in one or two guest speakers with geoscience expertise to conduct these sessions.

Course highlights and an outline follow:

The students were very involved in the concept map activities and ordering. We developed two concept maps, the practice version focused on the US Dept of Homeland Security's Critical Infrastructures. Prior to this class the students were given a related FEMA independent Study certificate course, as a homework assignment, listed in the module. I then handed out the Homeland Security Sector Risk Snapshots, May 2014 document, listed as a Unit 1 Resource, we reviewed the document including sector dependencies and inter-dependencies. Next each student ordered the 16 Critical Infrastructure, a discussion followed whereby each student defended their rating. For the second concept map, the students developed a list of hazards on the classroom's whiteboard, after completing their individual concept map, a discussion followed. I think the students were very engaged because they were able to study the complex, relationships and interactions while approaching the assignment in a comfortable atmosphere. The concept map provided them with an excellent visual and as a backgrounder to the overall module.

The Probability and Comparative Probabilities of Risk Activity was a real eye-opener for the students. It gave them a chance to analyze Real World data published in a Hazard Mitigation Plan, including the number of instances when a state required federal assistance, frequency, average costs etc. The students found the total and average costs of federal assistance shocking, a lively Disaster Economics discussion --- Are Disasters Good or Bad for the Economy? --- ensued. I then projected the US National Debt Clock Real Time and the Debt Clock Time Machine on the whiteboard to support the discussion.

In summary the students were very overwhelmed with the amount of material compressed into a short time-frame and I believe they would have benefited if I drilled down on fewer topics, or spread out the material throughout the semester. That said going forward I am leaning toward the latter. In doing so, I will also invite a geoscience guest speakers to conduct the Sea Level Rise and Coastal Erosion lesson and activities.

Additional highlights are mentioned in "My Experience Teaching with InTeGrate Materials" section.

UNIT 1

• Concept Map;
• Reading Chapters 5, 6 and 7 Fundamentals of Emergency Management

• Probability & Comparative Probabilities of Risk;
• Review Hazard Mitigation Plan

UNIT 2

Class 3

• Hazard Vulnerability Analysis using Kaiser Permanent Tool, write a summary;

Class 4

• Hazard Mitigation Plan Analysis memorandum;
• FEMA IS 328 Local Plan Review
• Read pages 21-26 in Chapter II State of New Hampshire Mitigation Plan 2013

UNIT 4

Class 5

• Press Release
• FEMA IS 29 Public Information Awareness

Class 6

• Policy Paper;

• Town Hall meeting.