‘DANA’ 2024: Turning Extreme Floods into Learning Opportunities for ESO Students

Institut Torrent de les Bruixes, located in an urban area near Barcelona (Spain), is strongly committed to environmental education and climate literacy. Its proximity to the protected Serra de Marina Natural Park provides an extended learning environment for teaching Earth and Environmental Sciences. In parallel, the school is involved in a regional initiative promoted by educational and environmental authorities seeking to transform the schoolyard into a climate-adapted space.

Despite this favourable context, engaging secondary school students with Earth sciences remains a challenge. To address this issue, we designed a cross-curricular, inquiry-based learning project using a recent extreme event—the Valencia flood of October 29th, 2024—as a real-world learning context. The project involved all secondary students (ESO) and aimed to strengthen students’ understanding of natural hazards, climate change and societal vulnerability.

The DANA project was structured around three main learning axes. First, students explored the atmospheric processes underlying the event, linking extreme precipitation in the Western Mediterranean to ongoing climate change. Second, they analysed flood vulnerability factors, focusing on land use, urban planning and infrastructure. Third, students reflected on local risk by connecting the Valencia floods to past flood events in their own town (1964), emphasising the role of informed citizens and public decision-making in building resilient communities.

This poster presents the design, implementation and educational outcomes of the DANA project, and aims to share transferable ideas and classroom strategies with other GIFT participants interested in teaching natural hazards and climate-related risks in secondary education.