This role-playing activity was developed for a large (~55 student) introductory-level undergraduate hydrology course. The course has no prerequisites, and students span undergraduate grade levels and majors. This activity would also fit well within a natural hazards or flooding-specific course, though it would require adaptation for a smaller class size.

Prior knowledge of the water cycle, including rivers and watershed hydrology, is beneficial.

This activity took place towards the end of the introductory hydrology course. Post-activity reflections showed many students thought it should be placed closer to the beginning of the semester, as they felt it helped them feel more connected to their classmates.

• Define hazard, vulnerability, and risk
• Describe different ways in which flood hazard and risk can be mitigated
• Compare and contrast the socioeconomic, temporal, and environmental pros and cons of flood mitigation solutions

• Evaluate flood risk and make recommendations for rebuilding after a flood event

• Calculate flood recurrence intervals and exceedance probabilities
• Interpret spatial patterns in flood hazard and vulnerability maps

All teaching materials can be found within TeachTheEarthFiles.zip (Zip Archive 216.8MB Sep11 24). File descriptions and activity/teaching notes can be found in the Teaching Notes and Tips section, below, or in the "Flood Lesson Plan - Teach the Earth.docx" file.

All the information contained below can also be found in the file "Flood Lesson Plan - Teach the Earth.docx".

The activity as designed includes eight different mitigation strategies, including both a Flood Insurance Program and a Flood Loan Program. We found students had difficulty distinguishing these from one another in the role-playing activity. Thus, we either recommend removing one of these two options or reevaluating how one of them is implemented in the activity.

Prior to Day 1

Assign each student to one of 7 roles (class split approximately evenly between roles) and additionally assign each student to a subgroup within the roles (A, B, or C). For example, a student could be Meyerland Group A, Meyerland Group B, or Meyerland Group C. See the pre-assignment, listed in the Materials section, below, for a description of each role and subgroup.

Day 1

Overview:

In a lecture-based format, students will be introduced to flood frequency analysis, interpreting hazard and vulnerability maps, and will be given an overview of the role-playing activity that will begin on day two.

Note: 

The last thing the instructor should cover on day 1 is the introduction to the role-playing activity. Days one and two are quite full, so there is flexible time built into day 4 if the first two days run long.

Objectives: 

Students will be able to...

• Calculate flood recurrence intervals and exceedance probabilities  
• Define hazard, vulnerability, and risk 
• Interpret spatial patterns in flood hazard and vulnerability maps 
• Describe different ways in which flood hazard and risk can be mitigated 
• Understand the format and requirements of the upcoming role-playing activity 

Before class, the instructor should: 

• Prepare by reviewing the PowerPoint lecture and the lesson plan description, below 
• Review flood frequency calculations and make sure all links to maps and readings work well. 
• Assign students to roles (Braeswood Place Resident, Magnolia Park Resident, Willow Meadows/Meyerland Resident, the Texas Medical Center, the City of Houston, the Harris County Flood Control District, and the Texas Living Waters Project) and sub-groups (A, B, C) and post role assignments on Sakai. If you, as the instructor, want to familiarize yourself with each role, see the pre-assignment document, described below
• Make a page on their course Learning Management System (e.g., Blackboard) that has a checklist of all the deliverables for students as well as a link to each assignment, if desired. 

 Homework given out at end of class: 

• Assign students the pre-assignment 

 Materials: 

• PowerPoint: Lesson Plan Files/Day 1/Floods Day1 Slides.pptx 
• Pre-Assignment: Lesson Plan Files/Pre-Assignment/Flood Pre-Assignment Teach The Earth.docx 
• Note, this document has links to student readings, which are often websites. As websites often change, all readings can also be found in the folder Lesson Plan Files/Pre-Assignment/Pre-Assignment Backup Reading Files/ and are organized by role and subgroup 

 Teaching activities / Teaching Narrative:

What causes flooding and what is 'flood hazard' (25 min) 

1. Brief intro on day 1 objectives and the importance of flooding (Slides 2-3). Then, introduce the term 'Natural Hazard.' Ask students to brainstorm 2 or 3 things that might cause flooding with their neighbors (Slide 4), perhaps in pairs.  Students share causes of flooding on the board / to the class.
2. Then ask students to discuss and identify two ways humans might impact flood hazard with their neighbors (Side 5), perhaps in pairs.  Students share what they discussed while you write their responses on the board.
3. The instructor then introduces the concept of cascading hazards (Slide 7 – 8), give an example, and asks for students to think of a few other examples. Bonus reading on cascading hazards can be found on Slide 9.  

Introducing concepts of flood vulnerability & risk (10 min) 

1. Introduce the concept of vulnerability and the components that influence vulnerability (Exposure + susceptibility - resilience = vulnerability) (Slides 10 & 11). Prompt discussion of what factors impact each of those components (Slide 12), and ask students to share out.
2. Define the intersection of hazard and vulnerability as risk. (Slide 13) 

Flood frequency analysis (15 min) 

1. Introduce the concept of flood frequency (Slide 14).  As you use the slides to describe the equations and definitions for return period and exceedance probability, ask for student feedback on the practice problems on each slide. (Slides 14 – 22) 
2. Discuss how we can use statistical discharge relationships over long periods of time to define recurrence intervals for floods of different sizes (Slide 23 & 24) . On Slide 24, ask students what assumptions we are making during flood frequency analysis. Possible answers can relate to time series length (if we have 100 years of discharge data, how accurate is the 100-year flood estimate? What about a 200-year flood estimate?), as well as assumptions about a non-changing system (i.e. we are assuming that the climate isn't changing and we are assuming that other things, like a new dam being built, aren't impacting the system) 

Flood mitigation (15 minutes) - can be bumped to day 2 if needed to make sure that there is time for the overview of the role-playing activity

1. Use the slides to introduce 'what is flood mitigation' (Slide 26) and definitions of structural vs. non-structural (Slide 27 & 28) and parcel-scale vs community-scale (Slide 29). Ask students to reflect about types of mitigation strategies including duration of implementation, cost, and social impacts (Slide 30 - 31). 

Note: The students will get more exposure to mitigation strategies on their own during the pre-activity homework assignment

Overview of role-playing activity and assign readings for next class (10 minutes)

• Instructor: Lecture Slides 32 - 40 
• Instructor: Tell students about where to find their role/subgroup on Sakai, which will then be important for the pre-assignment homework 
• Instructor: Assign pre-assignment homework, due by the beginning of day 2 of the activity.  

Day 2 

Overview: 

The instructor will complete the lecture from day 1, as needed. Students will be reminded of the structure of the role-playing activity and then will work together in small groups to analyze the flood risk/hazard of their neighborhood, investigate mitigation solutions, and create a mitigation plan.

Objectives 

Students will be able to:

• Compare and contrast the socioeconomic, temporal, and environmental pros and cons of flood mitigation solutions for their specific role 
• Read and synthesize hazard and risk maps 

 Before class, the instructor should: 

• Print out documents from the materials list as needed (most can be accessed online, but the Mitigation Strategies and Role Cheat Sheet Document should be printed out, such that there are 3 to 4 copies available per role, since students will use them for reference) 
• Prep a seating chart for the classroom, see more details in the 'materials' section, below. An example can be found in Lesson Plan Files/Day 2/Role Seating Chart Example.pdf 
• Make one Google Slides or Jamboard for each role, with one empty (except for the title) slide/page per mitigation strategy, then link these in Question 3 in the Part 1 Subgroup Worksheet documents 
• Check that the website links in documents work (Part 1 - Questions 1 a, b, and c.). If not, replace with links to documents in the Lesson Plan Files/Day 2/Backup Map Files and Screenshots/ folder 

 Materials: 

• All files can be found in the Lesson Plan Files/Day 2/ folder 
• A seating chart for your classroom that should designate seating areas for each of the seven roles, and within those areas where each subgroup (A, B, and C) should sit. An example can be found in Lesson Plan Files/Day 2/Role Seating Chart Example.pdf 
• Part 1 sub-group worksheets. This assignment is filled out by subgroup. For example, all students who are both in the Texas Medical Center role and in Subgroup A would submit one document together.  There are four versions:
  • One version of the document for community member roles (Meyerland, Braeswood, Magnolia Park), 
  • One version for government groups (City of Houston, Harris County Flood Control District), 
  • One version for the Texas Medical Center, and 
  • One for the Texas Living Waters Project 
• These documents link to several maps that are either google drive links or websites, in the case that these links are no longer functional, screenshots of relevant maps can be found in the Lesson Plan Files/Day 2/Backup Map Files and Screenshots/ folder 
• The final question of the worksheet asks students to input information into a Jamboard or Google Slides. This will need to be created by the instructor prior to class such that there is one set of slides per role, and one slide per mitigation strategy.  
• Part 2 whole role worksheets.  One document is turned in per role.  There are two versions:
  • One version of the document for the Texas Living Waters Project, and 
  • One 'general' version for everyone else 
• Mitigation Strategies and Role Cheat Sheet (Lesson Plan Files/Day 2/Mitigation Strategies and Role Cheat Sheet - Teach The Earth.docx), print out 3 to 4 copies per role  
• PowerPoint: Lesson Plan Files/Day 1/Floods Day1 Slides.pptx 

 Instructor Tasks: 

• Begin by completing any lecture not finished on day 1. 

 Student Deliverables:  

• Pre-assignment (due before class on day 2, one per student) 
• Part 1 sub-group worksheet (due at the end of class on day 2, one submission per subgroup within each role) 
• Part 2 role worksheet (will be begun on day 2, finished in-class on day 3, one submission per role) 

Teaching activities/Teaching narrative 

Divide class into roles and sub-groups (as students arrive)

• Instructor: Post a list of roles and subgroups and have a seating chart ready for students as they come in 

Reading hazard and vulnerability maps (15 min)

1. Introduce hazard and vulnerability maps and how to read them, as this is something they'll need to do during the first activity (Slides 41 - 45). If time permits, pull up examples of the maps on your computer to show students how they work interactively. Flood Map (Lesson Plan Files/Day 2/Backup Map Files and Screenshots/Part 1 – question 1a – flood water depth map.html), Environmental Justice Map (interactive website linked here; screenshots of maps are in the Lesson Plan Files/Day 2/Backup Map Files and Screenshots/ folder. Point out that in the EPA Environmental Justice Mapper, colors represent how each variable in each census tract compares to the nation, rather than absolute values of the variable itself. 
2. On Slide 46, students look for spatial relationships between flooding, low-income population (a possible driver of vulnerability), and hazardous waste proximity (related to potential risk of flood-driven cascading hazard). 

Role-playing activity, sub-group work (30 minutes)

• Ask students to meet with their sub-groups within their roles and get started on the Part 1 Subgroup worksheet. Help the students keep track of time! This should take 30 minutes—write the activity end time up on the board. 
• Remind students that they have access to the Mitigation Strategies and Role Cheat Sheet, which has most of the information that they will need to do this activity and the following Part 2 activity. 

Role playing activity, whole group work (30 minutes)

• State that the students are about to begin a meeting with members of their community or organization with the purpose of coming up with a plan that outlines their preferred flood mitigation strategies for their community as well as the flood mitigation strategies that they think would not be a good fit for their role.  
• Students should meet with their whole role and start the Part 2 – Whole Role Worksheet--each role uses the same worksheet, except the Texas Living Waters Project.  
• Help the students keep track of time, and check in with the Texas Living Waters Project to ensure they understand their role in the upcoming town hall. 

Collect Mitigation Cheat Sheet Documents and Part 1 Subgroup Worksheets at the end of this class. The students may need 10 minutes or so at the beginning of day 3 to finish the Part 2 Whole-Role worksheet during class.

Day 3 

Overview: 

On this day, students will complete their Part 2 Whole-Role worksheet (if not previously completed) and will then take part in town hall with students from other roles to develop a community flood mitigation plan. If the class size is large, we recommend having multiple town halls with 2-3 people from each role in each town hall.

 Related Learning Objectives: 

• Compare and contrast the socioeconomic, temporal, and environmental pros and cons of flood mitigation solutions 
• Evaluate flood risk and make recommendations for rebuilding after a flood event 
• Communicating scientific knowledge to multiple stakeholders to facilitate finding science- and community-based solutions for environmental challenges 

 Before class, the instructor should: 

• Print out the materials below, as needed. Most can be accessed by students online. 
• Assign students to town hall groups (2-3 per role per town hall group).  

 Materials: 

• Role Seating Chart from Day 2 (example: Lesson Plan Files/Day 2/Role Seating Chart Example.pdf) 
• Town Hall Seating Chart (example: Lesson Plan Files/Day 3/Town Hall Seating Chart Example.pdf) 
• Town Hall Meeting Agenda (Students will have a copy of this at the end of their Whole-Role Worksheet, but it could be good to print out a few copies per town hall for reference. Lesson Plan Files/Day 3/Flood Town Hall Meeting Agenda.docx) 
• Town Hall Code of Conduct Worksheet (1 per town hall group; Lesson Plan Files/Day 3/ Town Hall Code of Conduct Worksheet.docx) 
• Flood Mitigation Plan Working Group Proposal (3-4 per town hall group, probably easiest to access on the computer; Lesson Plan Files/Day 3/Flood Mitigation Plan Working Group Proposal.docx) 
• Flood mitigation and role cheat sheet (same as day 2; Lesson Plan Files/Day 2/Mitigation Strategies and Role Cheat Sheet - Teach The Earth.docx) 

 Instructor tasks during class: 

This is a less instructor-heavy class. Your job is to keep the agenda moving forward by keeping track of time, answering questions, and checking on groups to make sure discussions are going well.

 Student Deliverable: 

Part 2 Whole-Role Worksheet (if not handed in on Day-2); Flood Mitigation Plan Working Group Proposal Document

 Teaching activities/Teaching narrative:

• If needed, take 10 minutes to complete Part 2 Whole-Role Worksheet (if not handed in on Day-2 

Town Halls (35-40 minutes)

• Assign students to town hall groups (Post a list of names and a seating chart for each town hall group), and post a copy of the agenda on the projector during the Town Hall.  Briefly summarize each activity before beginning the Town Hall. 
• Students will perform the following tasks while the instructor keeps track of time and walks around to facilitate discussions:
  • Develop and sign a code of conduct for the agenda (10 minutes) 
  • Town hall introduction and welcome from the Texas Living Water Project (TLWP) (5 minutes) 
  • Town Hall Attendee Introductions (3 minutes per role) 
  • TLWP will call on each role to introduce themselves. Each role will state their role, a little bit about their role, and will describe what they are advocating for. 
  • Open Discussion moderated by TLWP (15 minutes) 

Proposal development (20-30 minutes)

• Briefly go over the proposal document with the class as a whole. Highlight that the goal of this section is for each person to find a group of other people ('working groups') with common interests to develop a mitigation proposal. Students do not need to stick with people from their same role. Each town hall can have multiple working groups. 
• Proposal development: Participants in the town hall will work on coming up with between 2 to 3 proposals. For example, certain roles may want to work together to put together a different proposal than people representing a different group of roles. TLWP can participate in any of these working groups. 

Proposal Presentation and Voting (20-25 minutes)– likely completed on day 4

• Proposal presentation: Each working group will present their proposal to the town hall including what mitigation strategies they hope to implement, how they will be paid for, and why they have selected those strategies. (5 minutes per working group) 
• Voting: Each person at the town hall then gets to vote for the proposal they want to implement. The proposal with the most votes is what the city will plan to implement going forward. (5 minutes) 
• Each team member of each role can vote independently. 
• Remind students that for their next activity, two people from each town hall will need to briefly share their winning proposal with the class. State that this will involve a quick 5-minute maximum explanation of what the winning proposal included and why these choices were made. Ask students to either volunteer or select two people from the town hall who were part of the winning proposal team to share the proposal with the class.  

Day 4 

Overview: 

Students will complete their mitigation strategy proposals if not completed during the previous class. Each town hall will vote on their favorite working group proposal and then will present that proposal to the class (if there is time), and then the class will reflect on the experience. There is additional room left on day four in case activities on days one through three take longer than anticipated.

Related learning objectives: 

• Compare and contrast the socioeconomic, temporal, and environmental pros and cons of flood mitigation solutions 
• Evaluate flood risk and make recommendations for rebuilding after a flood event  

 Before class, the instructor should: 

•  Prep the Flood Activity Reflection Worksheet, listed below. 

Materials: 

• Flood Activity Reflection Worksheet (1 per student, can be printed out or accessed online, located: Lesson Plan Files/Day 4/Flood Activity Reflection Worksheet.docx). 

 General Instructor Tasks During Class: 

• Invite two people from each town hall group to present their winning proposal 
• Hand out reflection worksheet 
• Lead reflection discussion 

 Student Deliverables: 

Reflection worksheet

 Teaching Activities/Teaching Narrative:

• Complete remaining Day 3 activities 

Each town hall group presents their winning mitigation proposal to the class. (5 minutes per town hall, approximately 15 minutes)

• The instructor facilitates sharing of winning mitigation proposals with the class, e.g., loading presentations or slides.
• Two people from each town hall present their final mitigation strategy to the class. This will be a verbal presentation to the class that includes which strategies were chosen in the final plan, why they were chosen, and how finances were decided.  

Reflection activity -  (40 minutes)

• Students individually complete a reflection activity and survey (20 minutes)
• Then, the instructor leads students through whole-class discussion of reflection prompts from the reflection worksheet 

Student deliverables used to assess student understanding are listed, below, by activity day.

All associated files can be found within the zip folder TeachTheEarthFiles.zip (Zip Archive 216.8MB Sep11 24), and are additionally described in the Teaching Notes and Tips Section, above.

Day 1

Pre-assignment

• Purpose: Students become familiar with their role assignment and become familiar with 2 to 3 mitigation strategies (based on their subgroup assignment). This is completed by each student individually.
• Timing: Assigned at the end of Day 1, due at the beginning of class on Day 2. To be completed outside of class time.
• Goals assessed:
  • Calculate flood recurrence intervals and exceedance probabilities
  • Describe different ways in which flood hazard and risk can be mitigated
• File Location: TeachTheEarthFiles.zip (Zip Archive 216.8MB Sep11 24), within the folder 'Lesson Plan Files/Pre-Assignment/' , the actual assignment is 'Flood Pre-Assignment Teach The Earth.docx'. While associated readings are linked in the assignment document, in case links no longer work, all reading files can be found within the folder 'Pre-Assignment Backup Reading Files'

Day 2

Part 1 sub-group worksheet

• Purpose: Students meet with other people in the same role who also are in their same sub-group, one worksheet per subgroup. They investigate the hazard and risk that their community, or other Houston communities faced during Tropical Storm Allison,
• Timing: Begun and completed in class on Day 2.
• Goals assessed:
  • Define hazard, vulnerability, and risk, and evaluate flood risk
  • Interpret spatial patterns in flood hazard and vulnerability maps
  • Describe different ways in which flood hazard and risk can be mitigated
• File location: TeachTheEarthFiles.zip (Zip Archive 216.8MB Sep11 24), within the folder 'Lesson Plan Files/Day 2/', see all files titled 'Part 1 Worksheet...", there is one type of worksheet for each type of role (community, government, Texas Medical Center, Texas Living Waters Project)

Part 2 whole-role worksheet

• Purpose: Students meet with their whole role to teach each other about different mitigation solutions and assess the pros and cons of mitigation solutions for their role. One worksheet is completed per role.
• Timing: Begun in class on Day 2, completed in class in Day 3.
• Goals assessed
  • Describe different ways in which flood hazard and risk can be mitigated
  • Compare and contrast the socioeconomic, temporal, and environmental pros and cons of flood mitigation solutions
  • Make recommendations for rebuilding after a flood event
• File Location: TeachTheEarthFiles.zip (Zip Archive 216.8MB Sep11 24), within the folder 'Lesson Plan Files/Day 2/', see all files titled 'Part 2 Whole-Role Worksheet...', there are two versions of the file, one for the Texas Living Waters Project role, and one for everyone else.

Day 3

Working group proposal document

• Purpose: Students must meet with other stakeholders and generate flood mitigation plans that balance the needs of multiple stakeholders. One worksheet is completed per working group.
• Timing: Begun on Day 3 in class, completed on Day 4 in class. 
• Goals assessed: 
  • Compare and contrast the socioeconomic, temporal, and environmental pros and cons of flood mitigation solutions
  • Make recommendations for rebuilding after a flood event
• File location: TeachTheEarthFiles.zip (Zip Archive 216.8MB Sep11 24), within the folder 'Lesson Plan Files/Day 3/Flood Mitigation Plan Working Group Proposal.docx'

Day 4

Flood activity reflection worksheet

• Purpose: Students independently reflect on the role-playing activity. 
• Timing: Completed in class on Day 4. 
• Goals assessed:  This assignment is primarily a reflection on the activity (what was challenging, what worked well, what was different between this activity and flood mitigation in the 'real world') rather than an assessment of specific learning outcomes.
• File Location: TeachTheEarthFiles.zip (Zip Archive 216.8MB Sep11 24), within the folder 'Lesson Plan Files/Day 4/Flood Activity Reflection Worksheet.docx'

All files associated with this activity can be found in TeachTheEarthFiles.zip (Zip Archive 216.8MB Sep11 24).

General role-playing activity format was inspired by Hales, T. C., & Cashman, K. V. (2008). Simulating social and political influences on hazard analysis through a classroom role playing exercise. Journal of Geoscience Education, 56(1), 54-60. https://doi.org/10.5408/1089-9995-56.1.54