**Problem-Based Career Activities for the Tsunami Education CD**

**Written by Joyce E. Patterson Stark**

**Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow**

**NOAA- Office of Education and Sustainable Development**

**Scenario**

As a result of the December 26, 2004 earthquake and resulting tsunami,
178,000 people died and 50,000 are still missing. Organizations are
helping with sanitation, water supply restoration and distribution and
rubble removal. Needs-and-livelihood surveys are being conducted to
gather information about deaths, children's needs for schools, housing,
home reconstruction and the tsunami's effects on jobs and livelihood.
Schools are being checked to see if they are structurally sound and then
mud and debris are removed. Medical teams are helping with the injured
and treating and helping to prevent infectious diseases. Global
Positioning Satellite data are being using in mapping the devastated
areas.

In addition to causing tremendous loss of life and property, extensive
environmental damage to the nearshore marine ecosystem has occurred.
Mangroves, coral reefs and sea turtle nesting sites have probably been
damaged or destroyed.

**Challenge 1**

You have been hired by the United Nations Office of Project Services
(UNOPS).

They want you to assemble a team to help with the tsunami disaster that
occurred December 26, 2004 in Southeast Asia. You will need to hire
people to work for these different divisions.

Tsunami research

Geology and tectonics

Structures and storms

Technology and tsunami clean-up

Tsunamis and the Community

Ecological impact on marine ecosystems

Psychological impact of tsunamis

Medical issues related to tsunamis

# [List what is known]{.underline}

Before anyone can be hired, find out some information about each of the
divisions using the websites on the Tsunami Education CD and the ones
listed as resources for this activity. The internet will need to be used
for the last two divisions.

# [List who is needed]{.underline} 

Who will you hire for jobs in these divisions? Make a list of questions
that will help you find the right person for the job. (Example - Which
type of scientist works with tsunamis?)

# [Report to the United Nations Office of Project Services]{.underline}

Prepare a written report that explains your recommendations for hiring
people in these divisions.

**Resources in Addition to the Tsunami CD Websites**

PMEL Program Personnel

<http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tsunami/personnel.html>

University of Miami Tsunami Experts

<http://www.miami.edu/UMH/CDA/UMH_Main/1,1770,2593-1;33864-3,00.html>

**Challenge 2**

United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) has been cooperating
with a Reef Recovery and Rehabilitation Project in Thailand to use a
VideoRay LLC, a portable Remotely Operated Vehicle, to help divers check
on the condition of the coral reefs and to look for debris and wreckage
in the water.

[Evaluate]{.underline}

They want you to evaluate if this technology has been effective so that
it may be used in other devastated areas of Southeast Asia.

NASA's Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama has been testing a
device for the International Space Station that would recycle
astronaut's sweat, respiration and urine into pure drinking water.
Crestridge, a Reno, Nevada, investment firm and the charity Concern for
Kids wants to develop this as a portable system for cleaning up the
water supply. Streams and wells in Southeast Asia have been contaminated
with salt water from the tsunami.

[Pros and cons]{.underline}

UNOPS wants you to consider the pros and cons of using this technology
for humanitarian purposes.

VideoRay

<http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/6/prweb246618.htm>

<http://breakingnewsblog.com/robotics/archivunami_cleanup/es/underwater_robot_aids_un_in_ts>

Recycled Water

<http://www.waterconserve.info/articles/reader.asp?linkid>

Impact on Marine Ecosystems

<http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2005/s2362.htm>

**National Science Education Standards**

Grades 5-8

Content Standard A Abilities to do scientific inquiry

Understanding scientific inquiry

Content Standard F Natural hazards

Risks and benefits

Grades 9-12

Content Standard A Abilities to do scientific inquiry

Understanding scientific inquiry

Content Standard E Natural and human induced hazards