San Jose Students and Tech Museum Join International UN Initiative to Transfer California Earthquake Preparedness Education to Schools in Less Developed Countries
Next week, students from the Silicon ValleyÂ’s first charter high school, Downtown College Prep (DCP), will host student and city representatives from Chile, Mexico, and Nepal, as part of the Final Symposium of a United Nations initiative to help transfer the California earthquake preparedness educational experience to schools in less developed countries.
San Jose, CA (PRWEB) January 18, 2004 -
–Next week, students from the Silicon Valley’s first charter high school, Downtown College Prep (DCP), will host student and city representatives from Chile, Mexico, and Nepal, as part of the Final Symposium of a United Nations initiative to help transfer the California earthquake preparedness educational experience to schools in less developed countries.
The UN initiative titled, “Reduction of Natural Disasters in Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean” aims to improve the development plans of its participant cities in an attempt to control the risk associated with fast urban growth. As part of the UN project, junior high and high school students from San Jose, CA and the project participant cities of Antofagasta, Chile; Kathmandu, Nepal; and Tijuana, Mexico have worked with their teachers, school authorities, and local coordinators on the implementation of hands-on exercises that help them to understand the importance of proper construction in reducing deaths, injuries, and destruction due to earthquakes. One of these exercises is titled “Building for the Big One” and was developed by the Tech Museum of Innovation as part of its Tech Design Challenge curriculum. DCP Teacher Francisco Valdiosera participated in a Summer Teacher Institute organized by the Tech Museum that trains teachers in the implementation of the Design Challenge curriculum and recommended the exercise when UN Consultant from Mountain View, Carlos VillacÃs, was looking for a way to incorporate education in his disaster risk management work.
DCP teacher Francisco Valdiosera stated, “The ‘Building for the Big One’ exercise helps students to understand the importance of proper construction, the need to consider soil characteristics in the construction process, and the value of prevention and preparedness in reducing human and material losses caused by earthquakes – all while allowing the students to have fun and be creative in designing, constructing, and testing their model structures.”
Besides working in their own schools, students from each of the participating cities have communicated and interacted with each other and students of DCP through an internet discussion group that was created exclusively for the project. Through this interaction, students have learned not only about the importance of disaster prevention, but also about the culture and way of life of their peers in other cities. Recent earthquakes in California and Iran also motivated discussion and facilitated the understanding of seismic disasters.
On Wednesday, January 21, students from the participating cities will meet at the Tech Museum of Innovation to present the results of their work. For many of the students, this will be their first trip outside of their countries. At the Final Symposium in San Jose, they will be meeting their peers, with whom they have shared their learnings and experiences throughout the implementation of the project, from around the world for the first time. In addition, the students and other meeting participants -- such as educators, scientists, and planning officials -- will have the opportunity to discuss and offer recommendations on effective ways to promote education around disaster prevention and mitigation.
Project Coordinator Carlos VillacÃs is convinced that planting the seed of prevention in todayÂ’s youth is one of the most effective ways to keep disasters like the one observed in Bam, Iran earlier this month from happening again. “We are convinced that activities involving children and their education will effectively contribute to the creation of a culture of prevention and better planning. The establishment of such a culture is the only way to ensure sustainability of risk reduction initiatives that can some day result in acceptable levels of urban risk.”
For additional information, please contact Carlos VillacÃs (Carlos_Villacis@ksg02.harvard. edu).
CONTACT INFORMATION
Dr. Carlos VillacÃs, M. P.A.
Project Coordinator
UNESCO/ISDR Consultant
Tel: (650) 967-3667
Fax: (253) 679-8397
