WHO WE ARE
Kids Teaching Flood Resilience is (KTFR) is a community resilience building initiative founded in 2016 by Dr. Merrie Koester of the University of SC Center for Science Education. Merrie’s research and practice asks:
What if science teaching felt like an invitation to youth to become part of a data-driven STORY in which THEY were the HEROES?
What kinds of LITERACY could emerge?
Imagine youth teaching their families: We have a SITUATION!
Here’s what we need to NOTICE, KNOW, and DO!
The KTFR STORY positions our youth as resources of knowledge and resilience about what to Notice, KNOW, and DO in the event of extreme weather. The "dark force" in the story is the dreaded EDUCATIONAL VULNERABILITY, a dangerous condition in which something you don't know can increase your risk of harm from a hazard.
Maybe we’re not as “Hurricane Smart” as we think we are.
This Public Service Announcement can help!
Your answers on a KTFR Flood Resilience Literacy Survey
will give a clear sense your baseline RESILIENCE CAPACITY levels.
Next begins the quest to “Get Hurricane Smart” across five POWER KNOWLEDGE domains:
1) Get Weather Smart, 2) Place-Wise, 3) Storm Surge Smart, 4) Prep-Ready, and 5) Water Safe.
A whole array of KTFR Storymaking Tools can get you there!
KTFR has been recognized by NOAA as a Weather Ready Nation Ambassador program of excellence. From 2023-25, the NOAA National Disaster Preparedness Program provided funding to support the further development, field testing and scaling of the KTFR curriculum in Charleston County, SC, schools. Partnering in this program were the SC Sea Grant Consortium, the James Near Center for Climate Studies and the Citadel STEM Center of Excellence.
Now, the SC Sea Grant Consortium has created a special place for
a plug and play version of the Kids Teaching Flood Resilience curriculum so that teacher leaders can deploy their own KTFR programs and their students can
make the claim that "WE ARE CAUSE WITH AN EFFECT!"
