Instructional Supplies and Materials:

• Communication formats (internet, email, publishing software, brochures, local emergency response meeting and school board meeting)
• Measurement tools for timing of traffic flow and estimating tornado safety areas
• Note taking tools
• Content area standards for curriculum content connections
• Maps of the school facility and campus
• A copy of the current tornado procedure or plan

Major Partners:

• Community safety and emergency response officials (Fire Chief, Police Chief, City Safety Director and Local EMA Director)
• Regular school stakeholders (students, teachers, administrators, support staff members, active parents and community members and safety committee director)

Challenges Encountered:

• Successfully contacting students (break-down of emergency phone tree)
• Permission for students to be in staging and triage areas in crisis situations
• Conducting mock disaster drills to ensure students respond in satisfactory manner
• Securing enthusiastic partners in local fire and rescue departments
• Fitting the instructional curricular components into each class curricula

Recommendations for Implementation:

• Utilize the plan that the students develop
• Make curriculum connections to other units of study before, during and after the tornado drill plan is developed
• Give students the responsibility to “ sell” their project to school administrators and safety officials.

Common Implementation Problems:

• Be sure to have administrative support before you begin this learning module. Make sure the people that make the decision regarding the tornado procedures agree and support all aspects of the module and its implementation
• Include as many experts as you can so that your students will be set for success. They do not need to be experts in all areas but they do need to listen to the experts from all areas
• Make others in your district aware of the module and invite them to participate

Curriculum Integration:

• Social Studies (impact on a community, population issues, immediate leadership topics, responding to shelter needs for the school and community members, identifying special school population needs)
• Science: (understanding the power and force of a tornado, determining safe places within the building and study of the effects of a tornado on the environment)
• Language Arts ( a wide variety of communication formats to be taught using tornado safety, communicating the tornado plan to the entire school community and safety officials)
• Mathematics (measurements of tornado safe areas to determine the number of people they can accommodate, study of traffic (people) flow to safety areas, evaluating the best procedure for traffic by collecting and analyzing data)
• Health (need first aid and CPR for life saving measures after a tornado)

Implementation Steps:

• Spots in regular curriculum guides, Ohio Academic content standards, will need to be identified. These should be made available to or determined by the service learning teacher or the regular classroom teacher.
• Direct instruction regarding the needs of the school system and the importance of the procedure should be instituted.
• Educators in each curriculum area will design potential age appropriate lessons utilizing the real need for the school safety procedure and deliver the content necessary for the content necessary for a viable plan.
• Contact the local EMA director for information, brochures and possible guest speaker.
• Resources associated with “ tornado” will need to be identifies and endorsed by the school safety committee.
• Procedures for the tornado drill will need to be tested in a variety of ways to determine the best student-generated plan. Evaluation of each plan and selecting a final plan to implement and test with the school community is vital.
• Strategies to utilize the tornado plan for future classrooms will need to be discussed and evaluated on a regular basis

Outside References: (Identify resources which will contribute to the validity of your school plan and procedures.)

• State government booklets and handouts
• Local government brochures and flyers.
• Internet sites that might be useful:
  • http://www.fema.gov/kids/
  • http://illiniweather.com/pages/kids_weather_links.htm
  • http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/edu/tornado/
  • http://www.skywarn.org/
  • http://www.fema.gov/library/prepandprev.shtm#tornados
  • http://www.fema.gov/
  • http://www.tornadoproject.com/