PREPPING FOR DISASTER: A NEW WAY TO ENGAGE STUDENTS AND THE COMMUNITY

Geoscientists are experts at scaring non-geoscientists. Around other geo-practitioners, we relish learning about the details and minutia associated with ecosystem collapse, melting glaciers, sea-level rise, and beach erosion; severe weather events, wildfires, and tornadoes; Yellowstone-style hot spot eruptions; bolide impacts, lost continents, and Earth-shifting earthquakes; hidden sinkholes and invisible radon gas. These scientific phenomena are just as interesting to us as they are disturbing to most non-scientists.

When geo-practitioners talk about the concepts of hazard probability, recurrence interval, and frequency versus magnitude, students and community groups (SCG) really just want to know how to protect their economic, emotional, physical and social assets. As geoscientists, we need to see this as an opening to engage with the non-geo-practitioner by connecting the hazard to a personal mitigation strategy. In short, SCG want to know how their lack of preparedness may impact them. At the most basic level, preparedness is a mindset and an awareness that (1) natural and man-made hazards exist, (2) hazards impact human life, structures, and assets, and (3) individuals, governments, and society may opt to mitigate by preparing ahead (i.e., prepping).

Geo-practitioners can be a scientific and reasoned voice associated with many hazard preparedness discussions. In educational and outreach settings, integrating “prepping” material into instructional design might include experiential and practical techniques such as hazard identification using topographic maps and field trips (i.e., situational awareness) and role-playing scenarios (i.e., assessment and planning).