Gangdong-gu (mayor Lee Jung-hun) will expand operation of hands-on safety education to heighten safety awareness for children and youth and to reinforce reaction skills for disasters and accidents.

 With reoccurring building collapses, fires, and large-scale disasters and accidents, safety education has been established as part of the regular elementary school curriculum to emphasize the significance in safety education for children and youth vulnerable to disasters.

 Taking the head start in reacting to safety education, Gangdong-gu opened a virtual reality (VR) hands-on safety experience zone in the Self-learning Support Center (395, Gucheonmyeon-ro, Gangdong-gu, Seoul) last April in an effort to allow children to experience disasters and cultivate reaction skills. Within 3 months of its opening, 258 students from 14 elementary and middle schools in the district took part in the safety education program.

 Starting the 6th, the ‘mobile virtual disaster safety experience school’ will be offered for preschool, elementary, and middle school students who cannot visit the VR hands-on safety experience zone due to distance or time constraints. Participation by 10 schools was anticipated, but due to the excess of applications the number for school participation was increased to a total of 28 schools and 5,013 students.

 The program consists of the mobile hands-on safety experience bus that visits schools with a program such as an earthquake and seat belt experience, the mobile VR hands-on safety experience zone that incorporates automobile, subway, and ship safety along with other continuously upgraded programs, and the safety instructor with whom children can experience virtual fires and ways to face them and how to use the descending life line in case of emergency situations. A free selection was made available at schools through consideration of school affairs and school demand.

 Mayor Lee Jung-hun commented, “We plan to continuously expand on programs that reinforce safety capabilities through the VR hands-on safety experience zone, the moving VR disaster hands-on safety experience that visits educational facilities, and more so that children can react and protect themselves against sudden disasters and emergency situations,” and “We will root an awareness of a safety culture into the district to create a safe Gangdong where residents can live in safety.”

  <Related Photos>

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  The moving safety experience bus (fire extinguisher experience)

  

  The moving safety experience bus (earthquake experience)

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