InTeGrate Modules and Courses >Map your Hazards! > Instructor Stories > Brittany Brand
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Initial Publication Date: October 20, 2014

Brittany Brand: Using Map Your Hazards! in Volcanoes and Society at Boise State University

About This Course

A geoscience honors course.

20
students

Two 75-minute lecture
sessions
Public, four-year institution
with undergraduate and graduate programs.
Syllabus (Microsoft Word 65kB Jul3 14)

A Success Story in Building Student Engagement

The Map Your Hazards! Module helped students positively affect community emergency preparedness by encouraging local emergency managers, who attended the final presentations, to modify online materials and adapt new outreach strategies as suggested by the students based on the results of their module findings.

I pitched the Map Your Hazards! Module as a chance for students to apply their scientific reasoning skills and knowledge of risk perception and hazard mitigation to natural hazards within their local community. The module fit well into the context of the class given the preparation the students had throughout the term. The place-based, applied learning aspect also seemed to engage students in ways that studying distant volcanoes could not.

The module was a great success in my course. Local emergency managers and professors from community and regional planning attended the final presentations, which gave the entire module more meaning to the students. The local emergency manager adapted some of the suggestions of the students in his outreach efforts.

My Experience Teaching with InTeGrate Materials

The materials were not modified for our course. I discussed the "Introduction to Natural Hazards" PowerPoint since the students had not learned about natural hazards other than volcanic eruptions in our course. I did not include the "Introduction to Risk Perception" PowerPoint because this material was covered earlier in the course.

Relationship of InTeGrate Materials to My Course

Semesters at Boise State are 16 weeks long with a 17th week for finals. I implemented the module during the last three weeks of the course. Final presentations were given during the two-hour final exam time slot.

Students took the survey and the pre-module assessment during the first week of class — not the first day of the module — to assess their pre-course knowledge of natural hazards, vulnerability and risk.

Assessments

The assessment for Unit 1 was the completed hazard, vulnerability and risk maps. Two examples of these are provided as module examples in the overview–Unit 1 page. The Unit 2 assessment was the returned answer sheet for Part B. The Unit 3 assessment was the final student presentation. Additional assessments included the pre- and post-module exams, which tested the shift in student knowledge on the topics covered in the module, and the reflection exercise which allowed the students to evaluate what they had learned and offer feedback on the module.

Outcomes

The goal of the module (in the context of this course) was for the students to apply what they had previously learned in the course to local natural hazards and risk perception. The idea of the place-based application and learning opportunity, and integration of geoscience and social science methodologies, provided an engaging and cross-disciplinary platform for learning. It also allowed the students to understand the societal relevance of understanding and planning for natural hazards. Based on the student feedback, the module was a success. Comments and suggestions for improving the module are listed below.


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These materials are part of a collection of classroom-tested modules and courses developed by InTeGrate. The materials engage students in understanding the earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues. The collection is freely available and ready to be adapted by undergraduate educators across a range of courses including: general education or majors courses in Earth-focused disciplines such as geoscience or environmental science, social science, engineering, and other sciences, as well as courses for interdisciplinary programs.
Explore the Collection »