Name of teaching material
Shelter simulation board
*The description appears by hovering the cursor over the image.
| Target |
Elementary school children in 4th grade or older and junior high school students Useful for teaching social studies and disaster prevention to children and students with and without disabilities |
|---|---|
| Disability category | deaf and hard of hearing physically challenged health impairment speech and language disorder emotional disturbance |
| Teaching units / Applicable scenes | social studies other |
| Specific purposes |
he board outlines a shelter space, including the locations of doors, etc., and places where temporary cooking place, medical office, additional toilets, kids spaces and information boards, etc., are likely to be established as well as “rooms” where people are to spend time in the shelter. The board also comes with cards depicting families, expecting mothers, babies and their guardians, foreigners, aged people, persons on wheel chairs, etc. An activity using the board plus the cards help students think how people and the administrative body should act when a natural disaster occurs from the viewpoints of helping themselves and others and providing public assistance. It also gives a good opportunity for students to think and discuss the priorities to bear in mind in order to support people of diverse ages and conditions. |
| Considerations for disability characteristics | Cards depicting people who need supports were prepared to help students be aware of their presence. The cards are to be thick (such as by mounting on pieces of styrene foam) to facilitate students grasp the cards and have hook and loop fasteners attached to the back so that the students can attach them to and remove them from the board easily. |
| Expected effects and results |
The board helps students: - Recognize that diverse people, including themselves, families, local residents and government workers, are supporting society. - Play the “shelter game” with friends and think how “self-help, mutual aid and public assistance” should be. |
| How to use |
How to use Divide students into groups of 3 to 5. Prepare one board and one set of cards for each group. Allow students discuss within the group and allocate “rooms” for evacuees by placing cards. [Example of classroom lesson using the board] The scene is a virtual emergency shelter established in a school gymnasium. Students are to assume that they are municipal officers and discuss and decide where to allocate evacuees of diverse characteristics. Assumed evacuees are families, expecting mothers, babies and their guardians, foreigners, aged people, and persons on wheel chairs. There are a reception desk, where a municipal officer receives evacuees, space for storing supplies (diapers, blankets, baby formula, etc.), information boards, toilets, a room for breast-feeding, a medical office, etc., in the gymnasium. The space where the evacuees are to spend time is divided into “rooms” of two different sizes (for a large family and for one person or two). Students are to discuss for whom to allocate the rooms by imagining the conditions of the evacuees and considering the surrounding states. For example: “Foreigners may feel uneasy not understanding the Japanese language. So, Room XXX is better for them.” “Aged persons have difficulty walking. Room that is near to ZZ is better.” “Babies may cry at night. So, we need to think the space to allocate. I think Room YYY is best.” A group size of 3 to 5 students has been effective for active discussion in our school. The shelter map can be prepared by drawing with ink or printing on a large piece of paper. The cards were mounted on pieces of styrene foam so as to be easy to pick up from the desk. There is no correct answer to the game. Encourage students to explain the reasons why they thought so. |
| Related teaching materials and information | The board was devised by using Bosai Game de Manabu Risk Communication - Crossroad eno Shotai (Disaster Game to Learn Risk Communication: Invitation to Crossroad) (authors: Yamori, Yoshikawa and Ajiro (2005), in Japanese) as a reference. At our school, we used the board for elementary 4th-grade social studies. The board was prepared cooperatively by teachers of social studies group of elementary division and geography, history and civics group of junior high and high school divisions. |
| Useful for other students | The board is useful for ordinary elementary and junior high schools as well as special needs education schools. It can be used not only for social studies but also for teaching disaster prevention and disaster risk reduction. Prepare the cards so as to su |
- Informant Social studies group of elementary division and geography, history and civics group of junior high and high school divisions, Special Needs Education School for the Physically Challenged
- Keywords shelter simulation, self-help, mutual aid, public assistance, social studies, disaster prevention, natural disaster, disaster prevention education, disaster risk reduction education
- Created 2024-06-07 13:33:17
- Updated 2024-06-07 13:33:17