Disaster prevention learning by Karuta game to facilitate understanding relations between unsafe and safe behaviors

Abstract

There have been various disaster prevention learning methods based on gaming, such as simulation games and card games, to help acquire the knowledge of disaster prevention. Evacuation behaviors include mutually related unsafe and safe behaviors, and such behaviors are needed to be understood as pairs because it is often difficult to guess one type of safe or unsafe behavior from another type. For example, if knowing the danger of wearing rain boots during flooding as unsafe behavior, it is not easy to guess how to behave in such situation to ensure safety. Therefore, it is important to understand the relations between unsafe and safe behaviors so that evacuation behavior can be acquired as practical knowledge. In this study, we propose a disaster prevention learning method that employs a traditional Japanese card game called Karuta game in order to facilitate understanding the relations between unsafe and safe behaviors. Karuta games consist of two types of cards: reading cards and grabbing cards. The reading cards are given with phrases on unsafe and safe behaviors respectively in the upper and lower words, and each grabbing card is depicted with a scene of taking safe behavior. In this way, disaster prevention knowledge is represented in the contents of Karuta game, taking the relations between unsafe and safe behaviors into account. Karuta game is played by two or more players with the help of a reciter, and the reciter randomly takes a reading card from the deck and reads it aloud. The players race to grab or touch a grabbing card that matches the meaning of the reading card. As a preliminary evaluation of the Karuta game, we conducted user observation in an evacuation drill in cooperation with elementary school children. As results, it was observed that children payed attention to the differences between unsafe and safe behaviors, and their accompanied guardians also understood the idea of unsafe behaviors.