Disaster Heroes: A Game-Based Approach to Teaching Natural Hazards and Risk Awareness at School

This study presents “Disaster Heroes”, a game-based learning activity developed to support disaster risk awareness education at middle school level. The game aims to help students understand natural hazards, recognize the role of human actions in increasing disaster impacts, and develop basic preparedness skills through an interactive and collaborative classroom experience. The learning content focuses on natural hazards that frequently affect Türkiye, including earthquakes, floods, landslides, avalanches, and wildfires.

“Disaster Heroes” is designed as a teacher-guided group game and is played using a game booklet, question cards, and simplified hazard risk maps. The activity consists of two main stages. In the first stage, students answer questions related to the causes, characteristics, and impacts of different natural hazards, as well as appropriate actions to take before, during, and after a disaster. This stage supports conceptual understanding and discussion of both natural processes and human influences on disaster risk.

In the second stage, students work with province-level hazard risk maps based on official disaster data. Without seeing the original risk values, groups are asked to predict which regions are more frequently affected by specific hazards. Through group discussion and map-based reasoning, students compare their predictions with actual risk patterns and reflect on regional differences. Points earned during both stages are recorded throughout the game.

At the end of the activity, students use their accumulated points to assemble an emergency kit from a predefined list of items. This final task encourages practical thinking about disaster preparedness, prioritization, and decision-making in emergency situations.

The game aligns with science, social studies, geography, and disaster awareness curricula and supports active participation, collaboration, and inquiry-based learning. By combining play, discussion, and real-world data, “Disaster Heroes” offers an accessible and motivating approach to teaching natural hazards and disaster risk awareness in school settings. While the current version is designed as a hands-on, low-technology classroom activity using printed materials, a digital version of the game is planned as a future development to further increase accessibility and adaptability across different learning environments.