Reference Unit 3 calendar: when each block runs
| Block | A rotation | B rotation |
|---|---|---|
| Block 1 | Wed Nov 18 | Mon Nov 23 |
| Block 2 | Fri Nov 20 | Wed Nov 25 |
| Block 3 | Tue Nov 24 | Tue Dec 1 |
| Block 4 | Mon Nov 30 | Thu Dec 3 |
| Block 5 | Wed Dec 2 | Mon Dec 7 |
| Block 6 | Fri Dec 4 | Wed Dec 9 |
| Block 7 | Tue Dec 8 | Fri Dec 11 |
| Block 8 | Thu Dec 10 | Thu Jan 7 |
| Block 9 | Wed Jan 6 | Mon Jan 11 |
| Block 10 | Fri Jan 8 | Wed Jan 13 |
| Block 11 | Tue Jan 12 | Tue Jan 19 |
| Block 12 | Thu Jan 14 | Thu Jan 21 |
Your section follows one rotation, A or B. Check which one you are in and read that column.
Learning in English? Start with the key words. Unit 3 key words, with sentence starters · the same words in Tamil, Hindi, French, Korean and Japanese
A hazard becomes a disaster through the choices a society makes about where and how it builds.
Questions that get you there
- Factual Which hazards does each plate boundary type produce, and which technologies protect against each one?
- Conceptual Why do the same buildings and the same technologies produce different outcomes at different boundaries?
- Debatable With a fixed budget, which losses is it acceptable to design for rather than prevent?
Across five weeks (twelve 80-minute blocks), you investigate plate tectonics not as a textbook diagram but as a working theory with real engineering consequences. The unit is anchored on the Tectonic City Builder, a custom simulator where you plan and build cities on real plate boundaries (Tōhoku, Anatolian/Istanbul, Merapi, Cascadia, Hawaii), spend a fixed budget on housing and engineering technologies, and learn which decisions saved lives when the simulation runs the real disaster.
The simulator is paired with primary-source case studies: Tōhoku 2011, Kobe 1995, Sumatra-Andaman 2004, Pinatubo 1991, Pompeii 79 CE. You don't memorize these. You use them as evidence to defend your engineering choices. Browse the full Case Study Library.