The What if? Disaster Mitigation project (2015-2017) aimed to engage post-primary learners in discussion about possible causes and likely consequences of a sea-level rise of two-metres in the Dublin region. The project was led by Dublin City University, with other RCE Dublin members (such as An Taisce, Educate Together and ECO-UNESCO) and an Industry contact (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) partnering in the design and development of the enterprise. Learners were asked to create a multi-media video clip to explain the reasons why this type of disaster might happen, what the impact would likely be, and what steps could be taken to mitigate or prevent it happening. The competition ran in a number of schools across the greater Dublin area in 2016-2017, and participants were provided with access to scientific experts, curated online resources and media training to support their creation of multimedia artefacts. The winners were presented with prizes at the National Young Environmentalist Awards Showcase and Awards Ceremony (organised by ECO-UNESCO) in Dublin in April 2017. This project may re-run in 2021 (subject to availability of funding) to further enable post-primary learners to explore the consequences of pandemics, such as the ebola virus or avian flu.
