An update on the Florida sinkhole disaster

In today's examination of risk, I present the latest in the incident I described in A tragic teachable moment about sinkholes from ABC News:  Scramble to Save Belongings From Sinkhole House.

Family members say final goodbye, husband buried beneath destroyed home.

Now, time for some analysis.  In my previous entry, I complained about the cursory treatment of science in one of the videos.

There's not much about science except near the end, although what little was described was accurate, as far as it went.

CNN tried to make up for its weak explanation in CNN Student News - 3/4/13.

Today, we examine how sinkholes form, we break down a court case involving affirmative action, and we explore some female firsts in the sports world.

That's a much better explanation and I really like the map of sinkholes in Florida, but it is too chopped up and the presentation is too dry.  In fact, it looks like some key details have been deleted and the conclusion is missing.  Instead, I'm likely to show the following from Discovery News to my students.  It's a complete presentation with a more engaging style, even if it doesn't have the map of Florida.

How Scary Sinkholes Are Formed

Sinkholes are eating up buildings! You've seen 'em on the news, maybe even in your own neighborhoods... but what exactly causes them in the first place? Trace takes a look.

The students will get a kick out of it and it will remain evergreen a lot longer than the one from CNN, as it examines other sinkholes and their causes, especially the one in Guatemala City.  When that happened, my students couldn't get enough of it.