Flood education

School program
Wollongong City Council has developed a school education program targeted at year 8-10 geography students. The program is aimed at increasing students' awareness of flooding within the local area and understanding of the catchment modifications affecting flood behaviour. It will also provide students with essential emergency information on how to prepare and respond to a flood event. 

The program meets the objectives and performance indicators of the natural hazard project option within the NSW Board of Studies geography syllabus for Years 9-10 (mandatory course: stage 5). Students learn how the environment influences the community and the evolving relationship between the community and the environment. The impacts of the hazard (economic, social, and environmental) and the responsibility of individuals, groups and government are considered.

In addition we've also developed an interactive computer model which has been incorporated into this program. The computer model illustrates the impact of various manmade modifications on flood behaviour. The scenarios used in this interactive computer model are hypothetical and not representative of any particular location of Wollongong. Users can select various scenarios (e.g. filing a floodplain, building in the floodplain, etc) and storm events to illustrate their respective impacts on flood behaviour. The impacts are displayed in the model using fly through animations, maps and brief explanations. 

To operate the geography fieldwork you will require QuickTime and FLASH to operate the flood education model. To download the latest versions on your computer, visit our 'Help with downloading' page.

The geography kit located on the right consists of:

• Electronic journal;
• Flood stimulus booklet questions;
• Answer booklet;
• Student broadsheet.

Visit the Flood Education Model link to operate the interactive computer model.

Teachers can obtain a copy of the answers by emailing our Design Division or the Illawarra Environmental Education Centre. Email addresses can be found on the right.