Investigation of the effect of natural disaster education on students with inquiry-based practices

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of natural disaster education on students through inquiry-based practices. In the study, it was examined whether there was a change in students' natural disaster knowledge levels and disaster awareness perceptions. In addition, the change in students' cognitive structures towards natural disasters was also examined. The research data were collected from Disaster Preparedness Club students studying in a public school in Salihli district of Manisa province in the 2024-2025 academic year. Thirty-five students participated in the study in which pre-experimental experimental design, research model was used. Natural disaster education with inquiry-based practices was applied to the students in the study group for seven weeks. As a quantitative data collection tool, Destructive Natural Events 1 and Destructive Natural Events 2 academic achievement test prepared by MoNE and Disaster Awareness Scale developed by Yetişensoy (2022) were applied as pre-test, post-test and follow-up test. The qualitative data in the study were collected with the word association test. The word association test was also administered as pre-test, post-test and follow-up test. The quantitative data obtained in the study were analyzed in SPSS 27 package program. Qualitative data were analyzed through descriptive analysis. As a result of the research, it was determined that inquiry-based practices had a positive effect on students' natural disaster knowledge levels and their perceptions towards disaster awareness, while it can be said that the decreases seen in the retention test applied to the students were due to time and reinforcements should be made to reduce these decreases. In addition, as a result of the practices carried out with the students, it was determined that their cognitive structures towards natural disasters improved.