Creating Compassionate Students

Natural disasters happen regularly, yet how often do we really pay attention to what is going on? I know that for me, most of the time it takes something happening within my backyard, or a very big event that everyone surrounding me will be talking about.

I believe that we can create more compassionate students in class by tying significant natural disasters into our science study in related events. If I am teaching on weather instruments and scientist, I would probably include some information on the hurricane that went through Galveston, Tx in 1900 and discuss how important studying the weather is because the people there did not believe that anything was going to happen to them.

I believe that a good incentive for my students would be to allow them to bring in recent events news clippings on natural disasters. They get extra credit, and even a chance to discuss it in class (which has the added incentive of being a small break from the regular activities), and then I can use those readings as a way to connect the science concepts to reality. If students are able to relate what we learn in class or in homework back to the events we read about, talk about, and post on the classroom wall, then they can get extra credit for either presenting that to the class orally or visually along side the news clippings. Students will also get credit for presenting information on organizations that they have found which help during these events. I would set an example by including the major ones in any unit that I do on a given natural disaster. In this way, I believe that students can become more aware of their surroundings, what the information they receive means, and how to respond to this information with compassion and understanding.