Teacher kit · session 7
When the network is down
45 minutes · Grades 9 to 12
Bring: the club's handheld; a printed ICS-213 message form; a second volunteer at a different location.
Goal
Students pass a written message by voice across the borough with no internet, the way ARES and RACES volunteers do for the city.
Why (10 minutes)
Hurricanes and blackouts take the phone network with them. The volunteer tells the story of a real activation; the class lists what a school would need to say to the outside world.
The message (25 minutes)
Fill in an ICS-213: to, from, subject, message, the sender's name. Pass it word for word over the repeater to the second volunteer, who reads it back. Count the corrections. Try phonetics for every proper noun.
Close (10 minutes)
Which words failed and why? What would a digital mode (Winlink through Pat) change? That is the club's next programme, not this one.