Teachable Moment-Hurricane Irene

With school starting back teachers are always looking for something fun and interesting to do to hook kids right from the start. With Hurricane Irene baring down on the NC coast there is a great teachable moment for kids and a simple activity that anyone can do this week.

Google Earth is always good about mapping events all over the world. Open it up and you can turn on any number of layers and learn loads of great information. Hurricane Irene is no different. If you turn on the Places layer and fly on down to the Caribbean Sea you can see the current location of the storm. Even better, if you turn on the weather layer you can see the cloud formations and the current radar.

When you click the hurricane icon you get tons more information from the National Hurricane Center and the National Weather service like forecasted tracks, the historical track, discussions about impact predictions and so much more.

So break out Google Earth and have some conversations about Hurricane Irene, and hey, you might just find much, much more to talk and teach about.