Oklahoma Social Studies USH.C.9.1.C
The Standard
- USH.C.9
- Analyze contemporary turning points of 21st century American society.
- USH.C.9.1
- Assess the significant events of the George W. Bush administration.
Evaluate the environmental and human crisis created by Hurricane Katrina, including the response by FEMA.
Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies (2026) · USH.C.9.1
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain how storm surge and levee failures flooded neighborhoods and spread contaminated water and debris. They connect those conditions to displacement and loss of life, then judge FEMA's response using evidence.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can use a flood map and an evacuee account to explain why some residents could not leave. They can compare a dated FEMA action with a documented unmet need and support a judgment.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think the hurricane alone caused all the flooding in New Orleans, overlooking levee failures. They may assume everyone could evacuate by car or that FEMA ran every part of the response.
How to Assess It
- Give students a flood map, an evacuee quote, and a short FEMA timeline. Ask them to name one environmental harm, one human impact, and one strength or failure in FEMA's response, citing two details.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs a flood map and levee map; have them mark breach sites and shade areas exposed to floodwater.
After reading an evacuee account and a FEMA timeline, ask students to name one unmet need and cite a dated response.
Give groups cards labeled storm surge, levee breach, flooded roads, delayed supplies, and displacement; have them build and defend a cause-and-effect chain.
Use a local shelter list and transit map to plan how a household without a car could evacuate during a flood.
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