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Implementing educational activities about floods in geography in Québec’s lower secondary schools: a turbulent river

Chantal Déry, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Canada

Alain Mailhot2, Mathieu Thibault1, Audrey Groleau3, Jacob Stolle2, Marco Barroca-Paccard4

1 UQO, 2 INRS-ÉTÉ, 3 UQTR, 4 HEP Vaud

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Exploring current issues and events through primary/elementary and lower geography education

August 29th 2024, Dublin

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Presentation outline

  • Flooding in Québec: a current issue
  • Natural hazard taught in the Québec geography curriculum
  • The challenges
  • Educating about flood is an interdisciplinary project
  • Experimentation and some preliminary results
  • Conclusion

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Flood in Québec: a current issue

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Flood in Québec: a current issue

  • Flood = important damages in Québec, higher cost for insurance companies
  • The need to educate and sensitize , particularly the younger generation
  • Several countries/regions have programs but we can’t « import » those programs/projets.
  • The importance of the local context to avoid the « dry feet effect » (Heems et Kothuis, 2012)
  • Few resources in the Québec context

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Natural hazard in the Québec geography curriculum�Québec school system

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Level

Age

Geo teaching

Secondary school

Cycle 2

Higher secondary

Secondary 5

16

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Secondary 4

15

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Secondary 3

14

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Cycle 1

Lower secondary

Secondary 2

13

Geography

Secondary 1

12

Primary school

Cycle 3

Grade 6

11

Social studies

Geography, history and citizenship education

Grade 5

10

Cycle 2

Grade 4

9

Grade 3

8

Cycle 1

Grade 2

7

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Garde 1

6

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Preschool

kindergarden

5

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Natural hazard in the Québec geography curriculum�Geography program

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3 compentencies

5 type of territories

11 main concepts

No Sustainable development program or goals

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No local natural hazard

Goal:

Bring some local to the global

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Educating about flood is an interdisciplinary project

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Objectives:

1- Determine benchmarks for the implementation of spatialized education on flood hazards within the framework of secondary school programs in Quebec.

2- Build learning sequences and teaching materials on different types of flood hazards

3- Using a pre-test/post-test method, test the effects on students regarding their perception and knowledge of flood hazards in their neighborhood and their intention to prepare for the risk of flooding.

Geography didactic

Coastal flood

Hydrology

Mathematics didactic

Sciences didactic

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The challenges

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Curriculum

    • Flooding is not explicitely in the program
    • Missing core concepts: watershed
    • Create a provincial tool with local example

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Conception team/Thematic

    • Not a common share vocabulary
    • Different concerns: accessibility vs. accuracy
    • Flooding can be a political issue
    • Limited quantitative data (pre- and post-test)

Teachers/School organisation

    • Work in silos
    • Lack of time
    • Limited knowledge about flooding

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Educating about flood is an interdisciplinary project

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Bloc 1

Bloc 2

Bloc 3

Bloc 4

Bloc 5

Bloc 6

Portrait des inondations au Qc

Comprendre l’hydrographie

Comprendre les inondations

Cohabiter avec l’eau

Probabilité et risques

Poser une action citoyenne

Interdisciplinaire

Amorce du projet et présentation de la situation-problème

Sciences

Usages de l’eau

Cycle de l’eau

Inondations

Introduction aux bassins versants

Sciences et Géographie 

Aléa, exposition, vulnérabilité, risque

Risque naturel, interprétation de cartes

Géographie

Aménagement du territoire, prévention, niveau de développement

Mathématiques

Articulation des trois approches probabilistes (théorique, fréquentielle et subjective)

Interdisciplinaire 

Réalisation de la production choisie

Ce que je sais des inondations

 

Les inondations au Québec au fil du temps

 

Les inondations: est-ce que je pourrais être touché?

Cycle et comportement de l’eau

 

Mon bassin versant

 

Les usages de l’eau

Distinguer aléa, exposition, vulnérabilité et risque

 

Lire et comprendre une carte de zone inondable

 

Les types d’inondations

Vivre sur le bord de l'eau : un avantage ou un inconvénient?

 

Agir pour se protéger

 

Tous égaux face aux inondations?

Émettre une prédiction… en se méfiant de l’eau qui dort !

Réaliser des essais dans des conditions similaires comme deux gouttes d’eau

 

Prise de décision… se jeter à l’eau !

Est-ce que ta localité pourrait vivre une inondation dans les 50 prochaines années?

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Quels ajustements peut-on faire pour rendre ta localité la plus résiliente possible face aux inondations?

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Educating about flood is an interdisciplinary project

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Flood principles

flood, recede and surge

Hazards, exposure, vulnerability, risk

Return period

Flood zone

Types of flood

River flooding

Ice jam flooding

Coastal flooding

Flash flood /

Rain flooding

8 short videos

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3 to 7 minutes

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Experimentation and some preliminary results

Pre-experimentation

  • In May-June 2024 – a pre-experimentation (math teacher)
  • 45 students (13-14 years old)– pre- and post-test + focus group
  • Teacher interview + Students’ work

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Experimentation and some preliminary results

  • Students like the local aspect of the project
  • Students talk a lot about protection measures
  • Students are engaged
  • Some students say we can’t do anything against flooding
  • Students have the capacity to calculate flood frequency
  • Teachers need to be engaged and knowledgeable about flooding

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Conclusion

  • A real enthusiasm about the project
  • Addressing current issues at school is complex because the structure does not facilitate interdisciplinary projects
  • Challenge to reach 200 students in 2024-2025 school year in different settings

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Source: Côté, Le Soleil, 4 novembre 2019

There's nothing we can do about it... …it's a natural disaster

Thank you

Chantal.dery@uqo.ca