Natural Hazards Underfoot

Science can be defined as the profound knowledge that human beings have acquired and broadened through generations. It does not only help create the novel innovations fostering world progression, but also prevents humanity from the plague or disasters.

Seismology, for instance, is one of the crucial scientific knowledges assisting in studying and monitoring of earthquakes in hopes of predicting where earthquakes may happen in the future, so that humans can prepare for, and better understand the risks of these natural hazards. However, in the Pan-Asia, where there are many countries located in active seismic regions, there are no such established educational programs regarding seismology including community awareness of earthquake hazards and risks. Intending to change this and raise student and community awareness about earthquakes, Michael Brunt, one of KMIDS experienced science teachers, has conducted a study entitled “Broadening Earthquake Awareness Through a Pan-Asian Educational Seismic Network.”

Micheal Brunt, experienced STEM teacher of KMIDS

Teacher Michael Brunt states in his abstract of the mentioned study that:

“the geographic area of Pan-Asia is considered as one of the most highly active seismic regions in the world, producing some of the most powerful and violent earthquakes on record.”

He marks the important fact, and corrects the misconception that earthquakes rarely happen in some Asian countries, like Thailand. In fact, seismic events are likely to happen regularly in this region.

“Pan-Asia lies among the intersecting tectonic plates of Indian, Eurasian, Australian, Burma, Sunda, Philippine, and Pacific, with the countries bordering along the Ring of Fire. The region has produced over 160,000 seismic events in the last 50 years, ranging from magnitudes of 4.0 to the devastating magnitude 9.1 megathrust earthquakes in Sumatra, Indonesia in 2004 and 2011 in Japan.”

Earthquake Event by Pixabay

It is undeniable that Michael Brunt has considerable experiences of being a scientist as he was selected as a team counselor for the NASA Texas High School Aerospace Scholars (HAS) Program in July 2015, participated in the development of an educational seismology program through the installation of seismographs and operating software at selected schools across the island of Jamaica in April 2016, and in July 2014, Michael was selected as a communication educator specialist aboard the E/V Nautilus, Ocean Exploration Trust, Nautilus Exploration Program, GISR leg in the Gulf of Mexico.

 Therefore, earthquake education, as mentioned above, should be established in schools. Furthermore, as a teacher in a Thai-leading international school that focuses on technology and innovation, teacher Michael signified that the students can apply knowledge gained in the seismology classes for more advance learning in science and technology. Students will be offered opportunities to experience inspired scientific performance in the monitoring of real-time earthquake data.

"Within the framework of this program, participating schools will host their own seismograph station with teachers receiving training on Raspberry Shake seismograph, SWARM and jAmaseis analytical software, and are going to be introduced to online educational resources from IRIS, Raspberry Shake, and the USGS. School seismic learning programs help teach a broad range of subjects from physics to computer science, allowing students to become part of a global seismic monitoring effort and engage with real-time, scientific data with tangible outcomes."

With his study, teacher Michael Brunt won the Best Presentation Award (the only such award given) at the International Research Conference for Science Education in February 2021. On behalf of the KMIDS Family, we would like to offer our sincere congratulations to him.