Using comics in teaching mathematics to improve junior high school students’ disaster awareness

Students’ awareness of disasters is vital, especially for those living in disaster-prone areas, so it needs to be developed during the learning. One strategy to increase students’ awareness is integrating the concept of disaster awareness in learning, such as using mathematical comics based on disaster contexts. This study aimed to examine the improvement of junior high school students’ awareness of disasters through mathematical comics. It also compared the improvement of awareness of the urban and rural students. This study employed a quantitative approach with a pre-test–post-test control group design. The population was all Year 7 students in one of the junior high schools in Banda Aceh (urban area) and one of the junior high schools in Aceh Besar (rural area), Indonesia. The samples were of two classes (experimental and control) in each school, which are selected randomly. Data were collected through a disaster awareness questionnaire and analysed by t-test. CONTRIBUTION: This study showed that using mathematics comics in different schools with varying conditions resulted in the different levels of disaster awareness-raising. Students’ disaster awareness in the urban experimental class was better on three of the four indicators, namely, pre-disaster awareness, false disaster awareness, and after disaster awareness, compared to the control class. Meanwhile, the rural experimental class did better on one of the four indicators, namely, disaster education awareness, than the control class. This study implies that comics can increase disaster awareness and the need for further research.