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Day 4: Local Risk Response — Citywide Emergency Plan

Lesson Overview
Time 50 minutes
Objectives Complete individual role-specific response plans, combine them into a Citywide Emergency Plan, and present the plan to the class
TEKS d(1)(C), d(4)(F)
Deliverable Citywide Emergency Plan poster (or digital doc) + 3-minute team presentation
Materials Chromebooks, H&L Workbook Ch 13 (pp. 223-225), Silver Ridge city brief from Day 3, large poster paper or Google Slides, markers, projector

Warm-Up (5 min)

WARM-UP: In an emergency, every second counts. What is one quality you would want from EVERY person on your task force, no matter their role?

Take 3-4 responses. Students will name "stay calm," "communicate," "make decisions." Bridge to the workbook framing: integrity and perseverance are the qualities that hold a team together when everything goes wrong.

Activity 1: Finalize Individual Response Plans (12 min)

Source: H&L Workbook Ch 13, p. 223, Individual Work step

Students return to their individual role-specific plans from Day 3. They expand each plan to cover:

  • First 15 minutes: What does my role do?
  • First hour: What resources do I deploy from the Silver Ridge city brief? Which buildings do I use?
  • First 24 hours: How does my role coordinate with the other roles on the team?
  • One ethical dilemma: Pick ONE integrity test your role might face. Use the role-specific examples below as models; students write their own dilemma in the same two-choice format.

Students should reference specific Silver Ridge buildings: the hospital with 150 beds, the high school with backup generators, the bridge over the Clear River, the East Side Rec Center.

Integrity dilemma scaffold (project on the board, students pick ONE and adapt it, or write their own in the same format):

  • Emergency Management Director: Evacuate the senior living home (80 residents, hard to move) OR the high school (1,200 students, easy to move). Buses only reach one before the fire.
  • Firefighter: Send your only ladder truck to a burning apartment building OR a burning warehouse that might have hazmat.
  • EMT / Paramedic Team Lead: Send the last ambulance to the most critical patient (40 min away) OR three stable-but-injured patients (10 min away).
  • Police Officer / Sheriff: Enforce the evacuation order on a family that refuses to leave OR move on and help others who will cooperate.
  • Public Information Officer: Release partial information now (may cause panic) OR wait 20 minutes for confirmed facts (people may make unsafe choices in the meantime).

Each dilemma must have two options where each side has a real reason and neither is clearly right.

Facilitation Tip

The dilemma is the d(4)(F) hook. Push students to name a TRADE-OFF, not a clearly right answer. Real first responders make hard choices with imperfect information. That is what integrity means.

Activity 2: Combine into Citywide Emergency Plan (15 min)

Source: H&L Workbook Ch 13, p. 223, Group Work step

Each team merges their individual plans into ONE Citywide Emergency Plan on poster paper or Google Slides. The plan must include:

Section Content
Emergency Type Name the scenario (Hurricane, Wildfire, etc.)
Team Roles Each team member's role and one sentence on their job
First Hour Sequence A timeline of the first hour with at least 4 actions
City Resources Used At least 3 buildings from the Silver Ridge brief
Communication Plan How the team uses the city alert system (text, radio, app)
Integrity Dilemma One hard choice the team faces and how they handled it

Teams divide the work, one person owns each section, but the team reviews the whole plan together before submission.

[H&L PLATFORM] Teams that prefer digital formats can build the plan in a Google Slides deck (one slide per section). The H&L workbook is the source for the role list and the Silver Ridge city brief, but the format of the final deliverable is flexible.

Activity 3: Team Presentations (15 min)

Each team presents their Citywide Emergency Plan to the class. The presentation must cover:

  1. The emergency scenario
  2. Who is on the task force and what each role is doing
  3. The first-hour sequence
  4. The integrity dilemma and how the team resolved it

Presentation time budget

Activity 3 is 15 minutes. With ~30 seconds of transition between teams, that is 2 minutes per team for up to 6 teams, or 90 seconds per team for 7-8 teams. Pick ONE compression option before Day 4 based on class size:

  • 4-5 teams (small class): 2:30 per team, full 4-point coverage, no transitions needed.
  • 6 teams (standard): 2:00 per team, still covers all 4 points; 30-second transition built in.
  • 7-8 teams (large class): 90 seconds per team, cover points 1 + 4 only (scenario + integrity dilemma). Points 2 and 3 stay on the poster for gallery walk.
  • Overflow: If teams still cannot fit, run Activity 3 as a gallery walk. Teams stand by their posters; half the class circulates for 7 minutes while the other half presents at posters, then swap.

The class evaluates each team using a quick rubric (visible on the projector):

  • Are the roles assigned logically?
  • Does the plan use Silver Ridge city resources?
  • Is the integrity dilemma realistic?
  • Did every team member speak?

DOK 4: If you were designing the training program for new EMTs, what real-world scenarios from today would you include and why? Use evidence from your team's plan to support your recommendations.

Exit Ticket (3 min)

EXIT TICKET (Trade-off / Dilemma Analysis) · Printable PDF:

You are the Emergency Management Director. A wildfire is coming. You have enough buses to save only ONE place before the fire gets here:

  • (A) A senior living home with 80 older adults. Many use wheelchairs or walkers.
  • (B) A high school with 1,200 students and staff at an after-school event.

Pros of picking A: _____________

Pros of picking B: _____________

My choice (A or B): __

To make a hard choice like this, first responders need a strong professional quality. Pick ONE from the list (or add your own):

  • calm
  • fair
  • brave
  • honest
  • caring
  • clear-thinking

Which quality fits THIS choice best? ______

In one sentence, why is THIS quality the right one here (not the others)? _________ (d(1)(C), d(4)(F))

Differentiation

  • Support: Provide a Citywide Emergency Plan template with sections pre-labeled and one section (Communication Plan) pre-filled as a model.
  • Extension: Teams add a "Day 2-7 Recovery Plan" section that addresses what happens AFTER the first 24 hours, sheltering, food distribution, mental health support.
  • ELL: Bilingual rubric and presentation evaluation form. Pair ESL students with bilingual peers as their presentation co-presenter. Visual icons on the role cards (firetruck, ambulance, badge) reduce language load.