European Seismological Commission, 32nd General Assembly, Sept. 6-10, 2010, Montpellier, France
A. Bobbio, A. Zollo, G. Festa and P. Mosca
EduSeis (The Educational Seismological Project) was a scientific and educational project involving Universities, scientific museums and high schools, aimed at promoting the Earth Sciences among students. The first EduSeis seismic station in Italy (MSNI) was installed in 1996 in the Science Centre “Città della Scienza” in joint cooperation with the University of Naples “Federico II”. In Italy since 1997 to 2002 more than ten stations have been installed in several high schools and research centres in Central and Southern Italy. The basic idea of EduSeis was to use a network of seismic stations installed in high schools to confront school students with the current practice of scientific data acquisition and management, using data and tools only accessible in research laboratories. Further, the students were involved in operating and maintaining a high-tech, but low-cost seismic station (sensor, data acquisition system and data acquisition software and processing).
In this framework we experimented new approaches to the formation/information on Seismology and Seismic Risk addressed to the large public and to the high school audience. Such approaches were realised through an interactive seismological lab (SISMALAB) operated and maintained by “Città della Scienza”, and through the design and experimentation of an e-learning environment in an high school located close to the Mt.Vesuvius volcano.
In this direction, we plan to introduce seismology in schools through the modern technologies for teaching and learning the scientific knowledge based on e-learning platforms and to involve the school community in establishing a scientific objective. These are exactly the principle and basic ideas of a new educational project that we are pursuing in the schools of Irpinia region installing a seismic station inside the school. Since the Irpinia region is characterized by an elevated seismic risk, the increasing of knowledge about the earthquake phenomena and their effects at the earth surface can contribute to raise the awareness about the earthquake risk and possible mitigation actions.