PRiMaT (Präventives Risikomanagement in der Trinkwasserversorgung)

Learning in the lab (4)

The research and development project PRiMaT (Preventive risk management for drinking water supply) focuses on a sustainable and risk-based concept for handling with drinking water involving in particular micro elements and pathogens (cp. Bethmann, 2011; Selinka et al., 2011). The project will run for three years. The consortium consists of 18 partners (representing water supplies, industry and research institutions). The main topics are risk analysis, risk reduction and risk communication in the supply of drinking-water. The latter involves education and communication concepts. Through the cooperation of various stakeholders eco-friendly behavior and a sustainable use of water resources will be promoted and communicated to the public, emphasising the need for change in their daily use of drinking water.
The content implementation at schools and the specific involvement of teachers (through professional development) is an important project goal: Students and teachers will be introduced and sensitized towards the subject “Micro elements and pathogens in drinking water”. “Meaningful learning” is the goal of this intervention. Students can, for example, acquire expert knowledge and a conceptual understanding of measurements of water pollution (cp. Sturm & Bogner, 2008). “Meaningful learning” will be combined with “Inquiry-Based Learning”, a method which is increasingly required in the European context. Students should be enabled to derive hypotheses independently and accomplish their own professional and age-dependent experiments, and thus optimize their learning (cp. Gerstner & Bogner, 2009; Rocard et al., 2007). The validated lessons will also be placed on a public information portal. The educational implementation will be evaluated by using a three-step design using questionnaires. Data will be collected using a pre- and post-design, comparing results of quantitative data about student knowledge and student satisfaction.

List of publications of this Project

• Flyer (pdf)