Boscastle Flooding
Audience: KS3/KS4
Subject: Geography
Topic: Flooding, Society, Economy, Nature, Environment, Climate, Causes
Question: Why is Colin facing his worst fears?
Author: Paul Lawrence
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Description
The mystery surrounds the flooding in Boscastle in 2004. This involves solving the mystery of why Colin is facing his worst fears. It can be used at Key Stage 3 to look at the causes and effects of flooding and as a detailed case study at GCSE (flooding in an MEDC).
There are additional sub-questions suggested that can be asked throughout the session such as 'what caused the flood that led Colin to be facing his worst fears?'
• Be able to identify and explain the key causes and effects of the flood
• Causes can be split into physical, climatic, human causes
• Effects can be split into social, economic and environmental effects
• A time line can be created and the response of the emergency services considered
Advanced groups can rank the causes in order to explain which they think were the most important – a diamond nine template could be used for this. The mystery can then lead onto how flooding can be reduced/managed in the future.