| Extension Unit
- Avalanche!
This exercise encourages the use of the Internet to research
the effects of avalanches, and one in particular. There are
two large organisations which have extensive websites on avalanches:
1. Colorado Snow and Avalanche Centre (www.csac.org)
2. Westwide Avalanche Network (www.avalanche.org)
On both of these sites there is a huge amount of information,
much of it for people whose work brings them into daily contact
with the threat of avalanches. So there are, for example,
webpages on search and rescue methods. Each of the two sites
has an Education section, from which it is possible to obtain
information.
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The effects of avalanches
1. In which five countries (in rank order) do most avalanches
occur?
2. Describe (if possible accompanying your answer with a graph)
the number of fatalities caused by avalanches each year.
3. What are the top five activities which people in the United
States are engaged in when avalanche-related accidents occur?
4. In which three months of the year do most avalanches occur
in the United States? A particular avalanche - the Chamonix
avalanche of 9 February 1999
This avalanche was the largest to hit the Mont Blanc region
since 1908. It caused many deaths and a huge amount of destruction.
Your task is to research this avalanche and its tragic effects.
You need to consider aspects such as:
• when it happened
• which villages were hit
• how was the rescue
undertaken
You need to use an Internet search engine (such as Yahoo! Or
AltaVista) and search for Chamonix and avalanche. If you use
a web browser such as Google, remember to include the year 1999,
otherwise you will find a large number of irrelevant sites.
You are to present your findings as a PowerPoint presentation
which will form the basis for that night's BBC News Programme.
The whole presentation must therefore not take more than five
minutes.
The basis of the presentation has been started for you. You
should consider:
(i) whether you want the slides in that order
(ii) whether you want to change any of the titles
(iii) whether you want to change the background to the slides
(iv) PowerPoint features such as Transition between slides,
and Building the slides (see textbook page 48).
If you want to import a picture from the Internet, you need
to follow these steps:
1. Place the cursor over the image you want to import.
2. Click the right hand mouse button. This will give you a
menu of options.
3. Click with the left mouse button on Save to file. You will
need to think in advance where you want to save the image:
it may be on a floppy disc (usually Drive 'A'); or on the
computer's hard drive (usually Drive 'C').
4. When you have saved it, on the section of the PowerPoint
slide where you want to insert the image, click on Insert
from the top menu bar, then Picture, then From File. You then
need to type in the location of where you saved the image.
5. Then click on OK, and your image will be imported into
your PowerPoint presentation. You can then resize it by clicking
once on the image and then dragging the border of the frame
surrounding it. |
