Educational tools for spreading knowledge of geodiversity and awareness of geoscience

The increasing sensitivity among the academics towards a holistic approach to geodiversity, together with the development of geoconservation as a new geoscience, implies the involvement of society in geoscience topics. The mixture of social values and features related to geodiversity predisposes for the design of educational projects based on experimental and cooperative activities with local communities. Moreover, the first step towards an effective geoconservation action plan is by raising public awareness of the value of the geodiversity. By taking awareness of the spatial and temporal scales related to landforms and geomorphological processes, as well as to Man-Nature interactions, people can realise the “dynamic dimension” of geodiversity and its role as archive of the memory of the Earth. As a consequence, people will be enabled to perceive the geomorphological environment as a system changing over time and as fragile geoheritage, therefore worthy of protection. In this context, during the PhD research, a series of actions have been designed and tested to implement innovative educational practices for spreading geodiversity and geoheritage awareness, by integrating geoscience knowledge, geoconservation principles, learner-based educational approaches, geomatics tools, ICTs, and geoethics. More than 300 secondary school students and their teachers have been involved in monitored educational activities developed in a variety of areas in the Piemonte Region (NW Italy): the Susa and the Sangone Valleys, the Morainic Amphiteatre of Ivrea, and the Sesia Val Grande Geopark. Results based on data form analysis confirmed that the use of familiar, informal, and friendly ICTs devices (smartphones, tablets and PCs) being effective in encouraging students to approach geodiversity, focusing on the topics provided by physical geography and geomorphology, both in the class and in the field. For achieving successful results the use of ICTs has to be: 1. learner centered. It is therefore fundamental to plan their use within a well-designed educational project. In this context, the IBSE approach allows the nurturing of critical thinking and increasing students’ interest towards geoscience topics; the BSCS 5E model proposes steps which are very similar to those already used by the scientific method, thus allowing students to approach geological topics through a process of research, instead of simply studying results. 1. combined with the use of analogue tools. This is useful for showing students the processes which are in geomatics. Moreover, this allows students to discover for themselves the pros and cons of both digital and analogue tools, becoming able to choose the better tool to achieve their goal. The PhD research allowed to bring a new discipline such as geoconservation in schools, and to improve students’ perception of the environment as a changeable system over time, by increasing their awareness of the importance for protecting geodiversity. Moreover, teachers confirmed that students increased their critical and systemic thinking concerning Earth system. The action plan developed during the PhD is therefore proposed as a model to be modified and adapted both in the timetable and in the region visited during the field trip. By supporting teachers in the development of such activities, important results can be achieved concerning geoeducation and geoconservation.