Waves…a tool to explore our home! A successful experience in improving risk perception

In a geologically interesting land like Italy, and in particular Campania, educating and informing about the concept of risk in general, and specifically seismic risk, is of fundamental importance.

The possibilities of seismic risk mitigation, in fact, depend not only on the scientific community but also on how well prepared and informed society is about the risk itself. It is, therefore, crucial to train the local population to increase disaster risk preparedness and resilience within our region.

The Science Capital framework, developed by Prof. Louise Archer er al. (https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21227), refers to a person’s science-related resources, such as their science-related understanding, knowledge, attitudes, activities, and social contacts. It also offers a key to defining how everyone's store of scientific knowledge is enriched and influenced by their habits, family, and network of contacts. Understanding this context and its dynamics helps us to enhance the resources available for scientific culture, with a view to building a competent and inclusive educational community. 

With this in minds, we built a didactic protocol dedicated to seismic risk perception taking into consideration the Science Capital framework.

“Waves…a tool to explore our home!” allows students to acquire both specific topics, such as the physical quantities involved in an earthquake, its generation and its dynamics, and general concepts, such as the perception of seismic risk and the impact of man in the prevention, in the possible induction and in the response to an earthquake.

An evaluation phase was carried out to assess the learning experience and the effectiveness of the science communication technique.

This work has been supported by CORE ("sCience and human factor for Resilient sociEty") project, funded from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 - research and innovation program under grant agreement No 101021746 .