The EduSeis Project in Italy: An Educational Tool for Training and Increasing Awareness of Seismic Risk

The Educational Seismology Project (EduSeis) is a scientific and educational effort which involves high schools, scientific museums, and research institutes in four different European countries: France, Italy, Portugal, and Germany. This paper discusses the Italian program, which is part of an existing cooperation between the “Citta della Scienza” Science Center of Naples and the University of Naples. The program has the aim of developing modern and advanced educational tools in Earth sciences, using seismology as a vehicle for scientific learning. In a region characterized by an elevated seismic and volcanic risk, the EduSeis project has a remarkable impact on the mitigation of the seismic risk. This effect is achieved in two ways: by involving students, teachers, and their families in schools and by using museums to educate the general public. Although there is a risk of strong earthquakes in the Mediterranean area, the amount of information and awakening to seismic mitigation are insufficient by comparison with analogous initiatives undertaken in other seismic regions in the world. The EduSeis project in Italy has recently received financial support from the Department of Civil Protection through the National Group for Earthquake Defense of INGV (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia). As a result of this program, a network of digital seismographs has been installed in a number of high schools in central and southern Italy. The purpose of this network is to make advanced, research-level instruments and data analysis tools available to schools and to increase students' attention to observations of Earth phenomena and Earth science in general. Products from the network are available to the schools hosting the EduSeis seismograph, to the Science Center's visitors, and to the general public via an Internet Web site (http://eduseis.na.infn.it). The project has several educational, scientific, and social aims. The main educational objectives are to …