Introducing the ‘Teachers Guide to the Monmouth County High Water Mark Initiative’

In an effort to raise flood risk awareness and action, many of Monmouth County’s coastal communities are participating in the Monmouth County High Water Mark Initiative.

As a component of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP),  the HWM Initiative uses signs on public and private property to show the high water mark from past flooding events, like Hurricane Irene in 2011 and Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Through this initiative, the County and its partners have already placed nearly 100 high water mark signs throughout 14 towns and 2 federal sites (including Sandy Hook).

To increase awareness of this initiative and to convey information about flood risk, safety, preparedness, and community resilience to students, New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium has created a Teachers Guide to the Monmouth County High Water Mark Initiative.

 

Our hope is that this guide will be used by New Jersey’s formal and informal educators to teach students about flood risk so students and their families will be well-informed before future events. The lessons and activities included in this guide could be integrated into your science lessons on weather, climate, or human impact on the earth, or during social studies lessons on geography or people and the environment. Connections to language arts and mathematics could be made as well.

Please click here for more information on the High Water Mark Initiative. For a complete list of lesson plans and other educational materials produced by the NJSGC on related marine and coastal topics, please go to https://njseagrant.org/education/resources-for-educators/lesson-plans/.