No one wants to think about disasters and evacuation. These are frightening issues for adults, and are especially scary for children. Advanced planning, including preparing for the care of animals, can minimize some of the fright and stress of evacuation.  Preparing for a disaster is the first and best step in helping both people and animals in case of an emergency. Animals are part of our families and we want to make sure that they are safe just like us. (ASPCA®)  After completing this Unit learners will develop a service learning project to share with the community that focuses on animal welfare during a disaster.

The learners will:

• describe the types of forces of nature that pose threats to humans and animals.
• identify potential emergencies that they or others might experience.
• define natural disaster.
• define the terms emergency and emergency preparedness.
• define the term evacuation.
• develop an awareness for emergency situations that may not have advanced warning.
• develop a plan of action in the event of an emergency.
• identify items that might be necessary for the welfare of their pets in an emergency.
• develop and implement a plan to help people and their pets be better prepared for an emergency.
• develop a service learning plan that they will share with others in the school and community.
• reflect on the service learning activities by writing a response to a specific prompt. 
  

Teacher observation of learners’ participation in the activities will be the basis of the assessment for this unit. If the suggested service learning activity is used a rubric should be created to assess the quality of the pamphlets.