An Integrated Hazard Management Approach

Sue Heard
,
Geography and Environment, University of Aberdeen

In the first hour each group of students were given a volcano to 'manage' in a classroom environment. In the second hour the Groups gave a presentation to show how they 'managed' their hazard.

What learning is this evaluation activity designed to assess?

I wanted to assess how much students understood about the management of volcanic hazards, using Student-centred learning, transferable skills and a deep approach to learning.

What is the nature of the teaching/learning situation for which your evaluation has been designed?

To evaluate student understanding of volcanic hazard management, for a Junior Honours class (3rd Year out of 4, taught MA/Msc),as part of a lecture course on Vulcanology and Volcanic Hazards. Previously a colleague had tried roleplay, with students acting out different scientists/villagers' roles, in a situation where a volcanic eruption was expected; this did not work in a classroom environment. In this scenario students had to research a particular volcano, its history and explosive index etc. They had to write a report, deal with a change in alert levels, produce hazard maps for evacuation and present this to their peers. The activity was restricted to two hours including presentations.

What advice would you give others using this evaluation?

For use with any course which contained an element of managing hazards; use emergency plans/alert levels from a United Nations source like the Volcanic Emergency Management publication to give some authenticity to the proceedings, and access to the Internet.