Abstract
Abstract. An educational program focusing on seismological activities for school and university students that trains in observational sciences and raises citizen awareness of natural hazards has been active in France since 1995. Over this quarter century, different generations of students have learned various lessons concerning instrument installation, data recording, and analysis. These actions have led them into the field of scientific interrogation and interpretation, making them better prepared for our modern technological societies. We describe these student commitments that have been motivated by the installation of the first educational broadband seismometer in southern France. Analysis of regional earthquakes has generated a greater awareness of the seismic hazards where students live, while records of strong earthquakes all around the world have led to interaction between students, especially after the deployment of additional seismometers in schools. The natural extension of such an educational seismic network, first at the national level in France in 2006 and later in many countries through various collaborations, has enriched the pedagogical practices of teachers, increasing their skills in seismology and natural sciences among various other disciplines and complementing standard educational resources. We describe the necessary and sustainable relations between teachers and researchers over time. Combining students' motivation, teachers' experience and researchers' expertise has led to different hosting structures over the years. We conclude by presenting the feedback from a survey carried out in 2019 among all the teachers involved, highlighting the strong and weak points of such a long-term adventure. Recent integration into the official syllabus of the new Geosciences high school curricula in France illustrates the impact of such an exceptional experience.
Highlights
Earthquakes occur suddenly and cause severe damage to the infrastructures of our modern societies, leading to high numbers of casualties
The idea of an educational seismic network arose in the United States with the Princeton Earth Physics Project (PEPP) proposed by Nolet and Phinney in 1993 (Steinberg et al, 2000)
All teachers agree on the fact that the presence of a seismometer at school is of great importance for the fulfillment of the main objectives of scientific culture and seismic risk education
Summary
Earthquakes occur suddenly and cause severe damage to the infrastructures of our modern societies, leading to high numbers of casualties These events are unavoidable, but their impact can be significantly mitigated. Berenguer et al.: Celebrating 25 years of seismology at schools in France tions allow teachers to develop teaching materials for their classes This teaching material is provided on a website to other educators within the same discipline. It has been observed that these online resources have been used by a broader community of teachers in many fields, including natural sciences, history, geography, and social sciences Through this unique, long-term experience, this paper contributes to answering the following questions: how and why has the French educational system evolved over time and benefited from the deployment of a dedicated seismic network? Long-term experience, this paper contributes to answering the following questions: how and why has the French educational system evolved over time and benefited from the deployment of a dedicated seismic network? Why is collecting scientific data inside a school important for both teachers and students? How have motivated teachers been able to expand online educational exercises to studying their own data and the data that has become increasingly available on the web? How have such original educational resources been shared with other teachers across school and national boundaries? What skills and support are needed to maintain an active educational network? Why can we not rely only on the open data sets available on the web? How has such an experience impacted French teaching programs?
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