Low-Cost and Accessible Approaches to Natural Hazard Education in Secondary Schools

Disasters associated with natural hazards are a shared and recurring experience across the Philippines, shaping everyday life, schooling, and community decision-making. This contribution presents an experiential approach to hazard and risk education that combines non-digital, hands-on classroom demonstrations with selective digital visualization tools to support conceptual learning of hazard processes and exposure among school-aged learners.

The approach was first launched in the Philippines in September 2024 through a national teachers’ workshop conducted by the University of the Philippines Resilience Institute in collaboration with the Durham University Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience and the UP National Institute for Science and Mathematics Education Development. The workshop brought together more than 50 secondary school science teachers from 26 schools across Luzon, including the National Capital Region, Central Luzon, and CALABARZON, providing a testbed for approaches intended to be scalable across the Philippines. Participants engaged in facilitated demonstrations and small-group activities, and were provided with take-home demonstration kits and slide decks that integrate the activities directly into their existing lesson materials. Following this initial rollout, the program continues to be delivered to both primary and secondary school teachers and students, with at least two additional implementations scheduled within 2026.

Educators are positioned as facilitators of learning, supported by low-cost, accessible, and scalable teaching tools suited to hazard-exposed, resource-constrained contexts. Activities include demonstrations of atmospheric pressure, seismic wave propagation, friction and compression forces, liquefaction, mass wasting, and earthquake mechanics using stick-slip and shake-table models. All activities are designed for replication using locally available materials and alignment with national science curricula, with emphasis on co-production, inclusivity, and adaptability across age groups.

The case demonstrates how blending simple physical demonstrations with targeted immersive tools can foster deeper understanding and appreciation of hazard processes, stimulate classroom discussion on risk, and support resilience building by establishing schools as the primary entry point for hazard knowledge that students carry into their homes and communities.