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Disaster Logistics Command

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Grades 6-860-75 minSource: Creative Dad Company

Students act as emergency managers. They hand out limited trucks, supplies, and staff across a pretend disaster map where roads keep closing. It is a tense, strategic exercise in doing the most good when there is never quite enough.

Budget levels

Amazon prices checked Oct 9-10, 2026 and may change

Materials links go to Amazon. Prices are estimates and may change. As an Amazon Associate, Creative Dad Company earns from qualifying purchases.

Quick Start

Digital downloads only.

$0 to buy. Printing noted separately.

Student time: one class period, one day.

Teacher prep / build-ahead: separate from student time.

Scale it

The default plan is one class period on a single day.

Scale back: Fit it into a shorter period, use fewer effects, or run a demo instead of a build.

Scale up: Add one extra effect, or spread the share-out across another day.

Ambiance video

Ambiance video coming soon from Creative Dad Studio

  • Flood records table and county map handoutPrintinguse what you have
  • graph paperBorrow or school hasuse what you have

Full Experience

Required materials for the class.

$0 per class (class of about 30, 6 groups).

Student time: one day.

Teacher prep / build-ahead: separate from student time.

Scale it

The default plan is one school day.

Scale back: Fit the build into one period with fewer effects.

Scale up: Spread the work across days, or add more effects.

Total Transformation

The bigger kit, with every optional item included.

$0 per class (class of about 30, 6 groups).

Student time: one day (one session, one-day event).

Teacher prep / build-ahead: separate from student time.

Scale it

The default plan is one session, a one-day event.

Scale back: Shorten the event, or run a demo for a smaller audience.

Scale up: Spread the build and the event across days, or invite a bigger audience.

Materials

Printed map of a disaster zone (teacher-prepared); Die; Tokens or markers for trucks, water and staff; Flood records table and county map handout; graph paper

Materials links go to Amazon. Prices are estimates and may change.

As an Amazon Associate, Creative Dad Company earns from qualifying purchases.

  • Dice set

    Die

    Shop

  • Drawing markers set

    Tokens or markers for trucks, water and staff

    Shop

Steps

  1. Analyze 25 years of flood records for a mock county (zone, rainfall amount, river gauge height, flooded or not). Graph floods by zone and find the rainfall level that usually causes flooding.
  2. Use a 3-day rainfall forecast to predict which zones will flood and when. Write the forecast with the data that supports it.
  3. Build a plan that assigns trucks, water, and staff to the forecast zones within a strict budget, and choose where to pre-position depots.
  4. Run the round: the teacher reveals actual flooding from the data, roads in flooded zones close, and one die roll adds a small surprise. Rework the plan fast.
  5. Score the result: percent of residents reached in 24 hours, compared with the forecast.
  6. Recommend two mitigation technologies (for example river gauge alarms, raised roads, or a levee) and use the flood data to explain where each would help most.

Standards mapped

  • NGSS · MS-ESS3-2

    Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.