For over 20 years, the Geoscience Information For Teachers (GIFT) workshops as a teacher enhancement program, have been financially supported by the EGU and were organized by the EGU Committee on Education (CoE). These workshops have been held in conjunction with the EGU annual General Assembly in Vienna, Austria. Each year the workshop has focused on a different general theme. Past themes have included, for example, “Energy and Sustainable Development”, “The Carbon Cycle”, “Mineral Resources”, “The Solar System And Beyond” and “The Mediterranean”. These workshops combined scientific presentations, by prominent scientists, coupled with hands-on, inquiry-based activities that are used by the teachers in their classrooms to explain related scientific principles or topics. The main objective of these workshops was to communicate first-hand scientific information to teachers, significantly shortening the time between discovery and textbook. Since inception, the EGU GIFT workshops have brought together nearly 1000 teachers from over 25 nations. The EGU CoE further expanded efforts to teachers outside of Europe by organizing Vienna-style GIFT workshops outside of Europe in Malaysia, Mexico, Ethiopia and South Africa.

            With a broad vision to further increase the impact of “out-of-Vienna” activities, a new type of EGU GIFT workshop has now been achieved for teachers in South Africa, on a “capacity-building” basis. Funding from the EGU was awarded to a local, South African Program Committee for a workshop in Cape Town, South Africa. In consultation with representatives from the EGU CoE, the South African Program Committee, together with presenters from South Africa successfully accomplished the first of these “capacity-building” GIFT workshops in August, 2022. The aim of these novel workshops is to transfer and grow, as much as possible, the achievements obtained at EGU in Vienna to different countries globally, while observing and learning the using successful educational approaches developed in these countries.

Programs and presentations of past GIFT workshops, with Web streaming, are available at: https://www.egu.eu/education/gift/workshops/

How to cite: Berenguer, J. L. and the EGU Committee on Education: Building International Capacity In Earth Sciences Education Through GIFT Workshops, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-115, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-115, 2023.

Geoscience Information for Teachers (GIFT)  workshops are teacher enhancement workshops organized by the EGU Committee on Education and held in conjunction with the EGU annual General Assembly. The program focuses on a different general theme each year. Past themes have included, for example, “Energy and Sustainable Development”, “The Carbon Cycle”, “Mineral Resources”, “The Solar System And Beyond” and “The Mediterranean”. These workshops combine scientific presentations on current research in Earth and Space Sciences, given by prominent scientists attending EGU General Assemblies, with hands-on, inquiry-based activities that can be used by the teachers in their classrooms to explain related scientific principles or topics. Participating teachers are also invited to present their own classroom activities to their colleagues, regardless of the scientific topic. The main objective of these workshops is to communicate first-hand scientific information to teachers in primary and secondary schools, significantly shortening the time between discovery and textbook. The GIFT workshop provides the teachers with materials that can be directly incorporated into their classroom, as well as those of their colleagues at home institutions. In addition, the full immersion of science teachers in a truly scientific context (EGU General Assemblies) and the direct contact with leading geoscientists stimulates curiosity towards research that the teachers can transmit to their pupils. In addition to their scientific content, the GIFT workshops are of high societal value. The value of bringing teachers from many nations together includes the potential for networking and collaborations, the sharing of experiences and an awareness of science education as it is presented in other countries. Since 2003, the EGU GIFT workshops have brought together more than 700 teachers from more than 25 nations. At all previous EGU GIFT workshops teachers mingled with others from outside their own country and informally interacted with the scientists, providing a venue for rich dialogue for all participants. The dialogues often included ideas about learning, presentation of science content and curriculum. Programs and presentations of past GIFT workshops, with some available with Web streaming, are available at: https://www.egu.eu/education/gift/workshops/

How to cite: Berenguer, J. L. and the EGU Committee on Education: Over 20 Years of Geoscience Information for Teachers (GIFT) Workshops at the European Geoscience Union General Assembly, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-116, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-116, 2023.

Tackling climate change and promoting sustainable development are two mutually reinforcing sides of the same coin; sustainable development will not be achieved without action against climate change. Conversely, many of the SDGs address the drivers of climate change.

My school has designed and implemented a project called “An interplanetary travel” thanks to the collaboration of the ESERO Spain which provides us with a kit of materials for our purpose.

The project is structured in different parts:

-First, we ask our students what will happen if we do not take care of our planet today by recreating a radio program.

Through a previous brainstorm the students consider the possibility of colonizing other planets of the Solar System in order to survive.

-Second, to be able to choose the ideal future home, they must investigate various planets that match the requirements for the human being to live and do experiments in order to detect the existence of life.

-Third, while some students are dedicated to designing and selling one-way tickets for this new place, through the creation of their own travel agency, and all the logistics involved others are dedicated to studying how to plan that trip . Subsequently, the "clients" select the agency that provides the best services.

-Fourth, for the planning of the trip it is necessary that our students become spaceship engineers to design the space vehicle and the pertinent tests for its takeoff.

To be able to build that spacecraft, it is necessary to investigate the different properties of the materials to find the perfect features that the different parts of the space vehicle must have: impact resistance, magnetism, densities, electrical properties and thermal conductivity, etc. and select the suitable ones to carry it out both the water rocket and the reentry capsule are designed and tested in an open field. The idea is to land in our future home.

-Fifth, calculations are made for the different phases of our trip: launch phase, space phase and reentry phase. (Level adapted for high school students). For the reentry phase the parachute is designed and tested with an egg so that it can land without breaking.

-Sixth, the students study the possible health consequences of future colonizers.

For this we propose to design, through Arduino programming, an automatic irrigation of plants to be able to self-supply water and not waste it, making use of humidity sensors.

-And finally, all student groups teach their peers the achievements through exhibitions.

How to cite: Hernandez, C.: What future awaits us if we do not take action against climate change? CHANGE TO ANOTHER PLANET, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-1716, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-1716, 2023.

The Victor Duruy high school is located in the Landes department, known in particular for its surfing beaches on the Atlantic Ocean. But students are often mistaken about the origin of the sand that forms our beaches, seeing it being pushed back by the waves. It will take levers to the brakes which are the temporal dimension (geological process of alteration, erosion, transport) and the spatial dimension (mountain range often far from the ocean). During a geological outing in the Pyrenees, we take sand from different sites along a river, up to the mouth of the river; each sample is numbered, and identified concerning the place of sampling. Back in high school, each group of students works on a sample: using a column of sieves, they will perform a grading of the grains taken: what sizes of grains are present? In what proportion? They can make a histogram of the proportions of each grain size. By comparing the results of the groups, they will thus be able to compare the future of erosion products along the watercourse. They can also observe the grains under a binocular magnifying glass to see their shape and appearance. They can also constitute a geologic model recreating the fate of the products of erosion from the mountain range to the ocean. On this model, zooms are made on the different sampling locations, with a Petri dish containing the grains of sand sampled.

How to cite: fayemendy, N.: the fate of erosion products, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-1740, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-1740, 2023.

The specific landforms created by the combined weathering processes by the exogenic forces are usually challenging to explain in a way a high school student would fully understand the process of their creation. The Stone Dolls of Kuklica are an example of earth pyramids which is a popular touristic landmark in the picturesque volcanic region of Kratovo in North Macedonia. We have made a model in which we recreate the process of their creation in an amusing way. The model is made of waterproof materials: plastic, stones, sand, Styrofoam, g and glue. The whole setting is placed inside a plastic pot where the Kuklica landscape is recreated. Then the pot is filled with sand which represents the softer rocks that used to exist around the stone pyramids. The bottom of the pot is perforated but closed until the beginning of the show. So, in the original sequence the setting is very simple and unattractive, a pile of sand collected in a plastic pot, which makes the surprise effect better. The students usually expect a cat to be included in the show. But then they see a plastic bottle marked as a cloud that brings rain and another pot used for collection of the ‘eroded material’. We open the bottom of the original pot, some sand escapes in the collection pot and then it starts raining from the bottle. The muddy sand slowly washes away and goes into the collection pot. Then some stones pop up. They stay firm and don’t let the rain take them down. The rain eventually weathers all the soft rocks away, leaving behind the wonderful landscape of the Kuklica Stone Dolls. 

How to cite: Perunovski, P.: Stone Dolls, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-1760, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-1760, 2023.

Poster presentation   is about the impact of carbon dioxide on the environment and its production and consumption in nature and how the gas carbon dioxide can be good or bad depending on its amount in the air.  The participants can see how to use the thermal imaging camera HD app with their mobile phones or their PC  and then how  to investigate the spectrum of colors that they reflect. The analysis of color of the app which they could  see should be red, orange  or blue due to the temperature of the chosen object of the observation. Participants could  imagine how to  produce carbon dioxide  and see the color of the gas in different situation(eg. in cold environment or warm environment  carbon monoxide present red color or blue  color due to different temperature released). The conclusion is that by connecting the color of the gases teacher shows  students  how  the increasing of the carbon gas  in air  is connect with rising temperature  as well as distinguish the climate zones according to the temperature zones around our planet. The topic about carbon gas is applicable for working with students of all ages as well as for students with special needs. Students can also visually learn about the impact of carbon dioxide on our lives in this way. Let s learn together how mobile app can be use in teaching.

How to cite: Jovic, S. and Mitriceski Andjelkovic, B.: Carbon of Our Planet, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-1784, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-1784, 2023.

Title: Beauty of Science

Author(s): Mukta Kulkarni

Affiliation(s): Gat no.169Talawade, opposite Sonigara Heights Ganesh Nagar Pune State- Maharashtra India.Pin-412114

Email-kulkarnimuktaa@gmail.com

Abstract text:

            “Science is a way of life. Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding the concepts on which we can believe. Science is doing and observing things around us.” Thats the beauty of learning science...

The various methods that I use to teach science in and outside the classroom are hands on activities for students of grade IX and X where we do projects such as model makings, art integration to know the key concepts of lessons, awareness for some important global issues such as Ozone depletion, management of wastes and health issues in the form of role play, poster making, thumb painting activities to sensitize the students to keep our planet safe for the living organisms. The issues we focused were conservation of biodiversity, plastic pollution and its adverse effects on the water bodies, e-waste management. Along with projects we celebrate science week in the school to develop interest in science where we keep sessions like irradiation of superstitions, magic with science, competitions such as debates, quiz, making colorful diagrams, some easy experimental demonstrations  for the students by the students and field visits. We also participate in workshops conducted by CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) resource personnel’s where we get the knowledge of different pedagogical activities to be implemented in our school. These activities help students to understand the science concepts beyond the classroom. Learning by doing help them to understand the concepts very easily.

How to cite: Kulkarni, M.: Beauty of Science, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-1842, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-1842, 2023.

The aquatic environment plays an extremely important role in the existence of life on Earth. However, aquatic ecosystems are directly at risk from increasing pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss, which makes it more than necessary to keep them constantly and thoroughly monitored. Until recently, water quality monitoring was carried out by periodic sampling when weather or other conditions permitted. In recent decades, the need for continuing and uninterrupted measurements has become imperative due to population growth, urbanization and modernization of infrastructure that create problems of wastewater discharge and surface water pollution in particular.

The U-DATinos team of the 2nd Exemplary Junior High School of Athens (U comes from the word Ubiquitous, DAT from the word Data and the name of the team U-DATinos refers to the Greek word ΥΔΑΤΙΝΟΣ - AQUATIC), assumed the design and the operation of an automated device based on the Internet of Things (IoT) technology to monitor the water quality in a river or a lake. The project aimed to motivate and engage students to seek and acquire knowledge and to develop skills and practices through design challenge and problem-solving techniques.

The development by students of an automated system that monitors water physico–chemical parameters is feasible with equipment that is easy to use and has a relatively low cost. For this purpose, the Arduino digital platform was chosen, to which a number of sensors was connected: temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, TDS and electrical conductivity. A GSM/GPRS/GPS shield was used to connect the device with the network and the ThingSpeak platform was selected to collect, store, analyze and display the live data stream (https://github.com/tziortzioti/waterQualitySensing). The water quality monitor station in its final form, was placed in a watertight box, and powered by a power bank for better portability.

Α number of educational STEM activities has been designed in which students gain knowledge and understanding of the basic physical and chemical water parameters in aquatic ecosystems; and develop the ability to correlate, interpret and evaluate changes in these parameters. Through these activities, students cultivate knowledge and skills in mathematics (systems of equations, data logging, graphs, statistical analysis), physical science (correlation of physico-chemical parameters, measurements and errors estimation, electrical circuits), engineering (design of measurement devices, sensors calibration, use of equipment) and technology (digital platform programming).

How to cite: Tziortzioti, C., Verras, P., and Mavrommati, I.: U-DATinos: An automated IoT device for monitoring water quality in lakes and rivers, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-1913, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-1913, 2023.

The EARTHLEARNINGIDEA (“ELI”) concept was born in 2007 following a failed bid by the International Geoscience Education Organisation (IGEO) to present Earth science teaching workshops, to teachers in developing countries during the 2008 International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE). Masterminded by the late Professor Chris King and two colleagues on a volunteer basis, the initial plan was to publish a new activity every week for the year on a specially designated website. Each activity presented an Earth science topic using an interactive, inquiry-based approach to educate and motivate pupils, whilst developing their thinking and investigative skills.

Originally designed to be a practical resource for teachers and teacher trainers all over the world, the activities use simple apparatus likely to be found in ordinary secondary (high) school science labs, whilst focusing on simple ideas. This proved to be extremely successful, and the project was extended when analysis of internet data showed that Earthlearningidea activities (ELIs) were being accessed most frequently in developed countries. There are now over 400 activities (based on the CASE model), many with accompanying teaching videos, general videos and extension ideas. All are FREE to download from https://www.earthlearningidea.com, with a new topic published every two weeks.

Since December 2008, over 6.1 million downloads of activities, videos and workshops have been made from all over the world and, with the help of international colleagues in geoscience education, many of the activities have been translated into 11 languages. The website is also supported by an Earth Learning Idea Blog which posts every Monday and, since its start, has reached most countries of the world and been accessed in over 12,500 towns and cities (http://earthlearningidea.blogspot.com).

This poster provides an insight to the background and an update on the Earthlearningidea project.  As such, it is designed to complement the GIFT 2023 workshop run by EGU Education Field Officers and to reflect the range of ELIs undertaken in their respective counties. It is also presented in fond memory of Professor Chris King who was the instigator and inspiration of this and so many other geoscience education projects in the UK and overseas.

How to cite: Loader, P., King, C., Devon, E., and Kennett, P.: Earthlearningidea: 15 years on and still going strong!, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-1925, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-1925, 2023.

Michael Anthony Pope

Zama Middle High School, Camp Zama, Japan DoDEA (maddscientist50@hotmail.com)

Spoken and written language is the foundation for learning. The power of the spoken and written word is essential to researchers and students. When students can understand, discuss, and verbalize their learning in their native tongue, we can provide the perfect platform and conduit for the next generation of scientists and inventors. The EGU Planet Press is a perfect resource that I use to facilitate this in my school with the advanced Spanish classes. Students use authentic and science-based content to further their learning of the foreign language. The articles are also helpful for our English second language (ESL) Spanish speakers in their science content learning. Using the material for reading comprehension is producing a benefit in the Spanish classroom, for the school’s ESL population, and as an extension for English-speaking students who are curious about science research not currently presented in their textbooks Additionally, I am also using the material with my polyglot daughter and her Swedish school friends to include authentic language to the teaching of science content.

How to cite: Pope, M. A.: Linguistically Science (Using EGU Planet Press to promote Science in a native language), EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-1930, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-1930, 2023.

This poster is an educator’s perspective on nine-year-old students' participation in the environmental project “Climate Detectives”, an initiative that engages students with space science and space engineering themes, including curricular and extra-curricular activities.

Climate Detectives is an ESA school project for students between 8 and 15 years old. Students are challenged to ‘make a difference’ in understanding and protecting Earth’s climate by identifying a climate problem by observing their local environment and be tasked to investigate it. The project aims at developing and reinforcing the students’ STEM skills and at stimulating their creativity, critical thinking and initiative to improve their understanding of climate issues and positively changing behaviors that can have an influence on such issues.

In our school’s participation, we focused on the satellites that the European Space Agency (ESA) is using in order to monitor water pollution. We investigated how this technology was used during the horrific environmental disaster that occurred back in 2017 next to our island, Salamina, when an oil spill was formed after an accident.

During the first phase of our project, we investigated what satellites are and why they are the necessary for Earth sciences. We built our own satellites, using LEGO We Do 2.0 and we wrote code in order to program them to move around our inflated Earth. We also found data (pictures from the Copernicus / Sentinel satellites) in order to investigate how large was the oil split was and which parts of our island and other areas of Attica were affected.

During the second phase of our project we read interviews of people in our island on how they felt about the oil spill and how it affected their lives and we wrote a letter to our island’s mayor to express our thoughts.

Furthermore, we contacted the environmental organization of Salamina (PERIVOS) in order to give us a talk about the environmental impact of the oil spill. Finally, we presented our research to other students of our school.

How to cite: Fratti, P. A.: Astronerds saving the world, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-2010, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-2010, 2023.

I recently started using Arduino boards in my physics teaching. I was looking for practical projects for an Applied Science class – which is a small-sized technical section of our school with 10 hours of science a week. It’s in the program to study some electronics, and although coding isn’t included, I feel it my duty to teach the basics. Programming requires a special way of thinking, with its specific structure using loops and variables. It’s a language on its own. Practicing it at a young age gives you an advantage on future learning abilities.

The choice of the Arduino board was quite straightforward for me, although Raspberry Pi would also do the job in a different way. Arduino is a microcontroller board barely bigger than a bank card, that connects to all sorts of electronics, sensors, and motors. It collects data in its environment, processes it, and operates a motor or display accordingly. It is cheap, versatile and you find plenty of tutorials online. Light and music setups, robots, automatic watering, smoke detector, persistence of vision globe, lie detector, portable guide for visually impaired people, rotating light-sensitive solar panels, electronic games… the possibilities are endless.

Programming an Arduino board can be done either in the Arduino IDE language, itself very similar to C++, or through blocks of words that will then be translated into computer language for you. The many programs available on the Internet usually contain a description for each line of coding. It makes it easy to understand, use, and modify to meet your own needs.

To demonstrate the potential of teaching with this microcontroller board, I present in this poster my pupils’ projects. I also show how one can draw, code (in blocks or text), and simulate electronic circuits with Tinkercad, a web-based designing dashboard.

How to cite: Bouquelle, V.: Arduino coding in the classroom, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-2077, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-2077, 2023.

The National College “Johannes Honterus” is not among the educational institutions that include in its curriculum concepts such as sustainability, healthy nutrition, nature conservation. Also, few chapters included in the curriculum can be considered interdisciplinary.  Hence, the teachers of our educational institution, which educates students between the ages of 6 and 18, try to remedy these deficiencies through various activities included both within the course hours and through extracurricular activities.

At the same time, we try to offer our students a learning system, already practiced in Europe, but too little in Romania, namely learning by practical application.

The goal is that, at the end of the school, the students will be left not only with theoretical concepts, without the connection between them, which does not help them much further, but with practical ideas. Students must understand that fundamental ideas do not belong to a single field, but each discipline can analyze the same phenomenon from different perspectives. In the end, all these analyses form a whole that completely defines the respective phenomenon.

Our students participated in several activities on sustainability, healthy nutrition, nature conservation. A first activity was carried out during the technology classes and was completed with a competition under the aegis of EU-CONEXUS and had the title Green School Presentation. 9^th grade students participated in this project. They built a Green School with the help of Minecraft World a were ranked among the 5 best projects in Romania.

In math and statistics classes, 10^th grade students wrote a journal for a week with everyone’s eating habits and the resulting waste. The results were analyzed through different statistics and then disseminated within our school.

In the chemistry laboratory classes, a few hours were dedicated to traditional food from our country. Thus, the fats, sugars and food additives contained in them were chemically analyzed. The results were the product of an Erasmus+ Project.

Another Erasmus+ project had as its theme the preservation of the environment and especially forests.

The feedback received from the students who participated in these activities was very good, which is why I want to present these activities to others through the poster.

How to cite: Damian, D.: Learning the Concept of Sustainability: Interdisciplinary Activities @Primary Education, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-2194, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-2194, 2023.

The role of debate as a teaching strategy has a great potential in enhancing learners’ motivation and their language skills, as well as in providing students with the opportunity to work in groups in a cooperative setting. It improves  language learning and soft skills like critical thinking, cooperation,  creativity,  because students discuss, gather information and organize their opinions around the multiple aspects of a topic, putting knowledge into action.

The purpose of this project is to motivate students, promote critical learning, deepen their understanding of the concepts tackled through first-hand action .

The topic on “Earth dynamics and energy resources” was developed with 18/19- year- old students in an Italian secondary school. involving the debate strategy.

 Adopting a task - based approach ( macro tasks and sub- tasks) the topic was investigated to find out which source of energy possessed the best requirements.

The work was arranged into three different steps:

• warming up under the teacher’s guidance,
• a core part
• a final part to summarize the work done

After eliciting their prior knowledge through a  brainstorming discussion on: “Research institutes in developed countries should focus on the direction of nuclear fusion rather than on renewable sources?”, the students were asked to form 2 different teams, each of them agreeing with either point of view, and to provide examples and points to support their opinion.

There followed a series of micro tasks on:

• the structure of the Earth, its systems and the impact of the greenhouse effect at global level;
• the steps leading to the theory of plate tectonics and the role played by geophysicists in enhancing research;
• the energy resources on Earth: differences, use, pros and cons.

Students were then able to identify the advantages and disadvantages of the most important energy sources and to understand the role geoscientists  have in protecting the planet from the dangers it is daily exposed to.

Instead of the traditional debate, the students played a team board game: “The Great Energy Debate.

Each team chose one energy source listing its advantages. while  also highlighting the cons of the source chosen by the opposing teams. The judges had the final say on the matter. The winner was the first team to reach the top of the game board.

Unexpected outcome: no one really won! In fact, evaluations and decisions on energy must consider constantly changing economic, political, environmental and social factors. Therefore, the debate remained open.

The experiment was excellent in enhancing  the students’ motivation. The game experience was   uplifting and stimulating.

Project monitoring and results evaluation:

• process-oriented in-itinere diagnostic assessment.
• summative, product-oriented, holistic rubrics.

In conclusion,  debate may be an effective strategy to foster both language skills and soft skills.  Discussion and debate encourage learners to create their own understanding of the content and connect it to their experiences, therefore, critical learning is improved. Besides, it  allows educators to gain better cognitive results and raise the overall quality of education.

How to cite: Achenza, A.: The Energy Dilemma.Let’s debate!, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-2208, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-2208, 2023.

(gabriela_tudor64@yahoo.com)

Physics is by definition a scientific research method of natural phenomena, being a practical science par excellence. In this paper, I present the important role Physics plays in environmental protection and its relationship with other real sciences, based on the projects and extracurricular activities carried out with my students. Although it is considered to be dethroned lately, Physics remains at the core of the Earth sciences. The main challange of this century is to make the transition to a development model that protects the environment, where economic and social considerations are in balance with the concern for limiting climate change and the sustainable use of natural resources. In the current high school curriculum the topics related to climate change, environment and sustainability are not prioritized in a single course, but they are approached horizontally, in various disciplines. For the full understanding of the complex environmental issues and for their effective and systematically approach, Physics must be combined with the other Natural Sciences, using Applied Mathematics and Informatics as a basic tool for theoretical modeling, simulations and data processing. The theoretical profile of my college allows the innovative approach in teaching and learning Physics, in a STEM context, using Inquiry Based Learning, in everyday teaching, or in extracurricular activities. Motivated students are eager and encouraged to expand some topics, approaching them from an interdisciplinary point of view and  working individualy, or in small groups. They are thus coordinated to take the first steps in scientific research, focusing on the applications of different phenomena, which will guide them in the professional orientation. Such projects as – „Biophysics, Bionics and Humanoid Robotics”, „From the Big Bang Theory to the Expansion of the Universe”, „Seismicity on Earth”, „Incursion into the World of Astrophysics”, „Radiation Sourses, Detection and Biological Effects”, „Motor Driven by Light”, „The Efficiency of a Solar Panel”, „Alternative Forms of Energy and Smart Sustainable Houses”, „Electromagnetic Pollution and Its Impact on Living Organisms”, „Uncontrolled Use of Chemical Fertilizers”,  “Water, Non-Polluting Source of Energy”, are some of the topics carried out with my students. Some practical projects like “The Model of an Engine Used in a Nuclear-Powered Rocket”, “Engine Models”, are made in collaboration with the robotic team, using the 3D printer, capitalizing their IT and ICT knowledge. The ecological activities, carried out within the programs  as YRE - Young Reporters for the Environment, LeAF – Learning About Forests, are usually included in the Eco-School magazine. Through this wide range of projects I succeeded to value the creativity, imagination, investigative capacity and practical skills, creating team spirit, giving to my students the unique opportunity to assume resposabilities  and also detect viable solutions for maintaining an optimal living environment.

Key words:  physics, natural sciences, interdisciplinarity, sustainability, environment protection

How to cite: Tudor, G.: The Interdisciplinary Approach of Physics and Its Role in Environmental Protection, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-2348, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-2348, 2023.

Throughout my teaching career, I have been interested in the integrated approach of STEM subjects, therefore I have participated in several projects in this area. One of these is the project “Educational trails of the Carpathian Schools”, the MOVE4NATURE project implemented for secondary school students, from sixth to eighth grade.

The development of science and technology is fundamental to a competitive knowledge society. Scientific and technical knowledge is increasingly required in a professional career and has a direct influence on the daily life of each individual. The STEM field (natural sciences – physics, biology, chemistry, technology, engineering, mathematics) is a priority mentioned and supported by all EU educational initiatives, being a priority for our  Ministry of Education in all its strategic documents and actions.

Together with my students, I have organized activities such as: Emotional map of the area, The adoption of a stream, Preservation, and use of drinking water, Solar Energy: Solar furnace, My Green City, The use of Physics in the Countryside Household as well as the Correspondence of traditional measurement units with the SI system.

Thus, I believe that I succeeded to stimulate the student’s interest in the study of physics, chemistry, biology, and technologies by underlining the importance of the notional content and knowledge acquired by the students through the educational and research projects carried out in the community. Promoting values and examples of good practice in the community. Inducing love for local traditions,  customs, and their connection with the study of STEM sciences.

How to cite: Mirela Dana, F.: Educational trails of the Carpathian Schools, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-2369, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-2369, 2023.

My name is Nadia Grozavescu and I am a teacher at Gheorghe Magheru Secondary School in Caracal, Romania. I would like to present you the following project, entitled “Improving STEM Education Across European Schools” (Erasmus+ KA201). The project took place in the school I teach between 2020 and 2022.

The overall goal of the project was developing a methodology for teachers to deliver innovative teaching styles to make the STEM evaluation more efficient and its implementation more attractive for students.

Over the course of the project we obtained the following results:

• 10 STEM pedagogical scenarios of which two were created by the teachers in our school. These were also translated in Romanian and listed on the project website (https://improving-stem-education.eu/teaching-materials/). I have personally contributed to the one about the active engagement in respecting the habitat.
• 25 online courses, grouped on nine STEM themes, of which five were created by our school’s coordinator. Again, all courses were translated and can be found on the project’s webpage (https://e-learning.improving-stem-education.eu/)
• 30 students' mentoring sessions, of which six were hosted by Romanian mentors who answered our call. The sessions were recorded and can be found here https://improving-stem-education.eu/mentoring-scheme/
• Three learning and teaching training mobilities which ten of our school’s teachers benefited of. These took place in Greece (Nov 2021), Belgium (Apr 2022) and Ireland (Jun 2022) and had the following main themes: Class Management, Students Motivation, Robotics and Programming, 3D printing and Laser cutting. I was one of the teachers who took part in the workshop in Belgium

The project proved to be complex and challenging, even more given the fact that we were the only institution dealing with younger students. Over the project our school partnered with a university, a Science House Centre, a centre for teachers’ professional development, an IT company, and an NGO dedicated to improving teaching.

How to cite: Grozavescu, N.: Improving STEM Education Across European Schools, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-2412, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-2412, 2023.

ABSTRACT EGU 2023

HOW TO REDUCE AND MANAGE THE END-OF-LIFE OF PLASTICS AND FIND AN ALTERNATIVE TO PLASTICS?

Raffaella Fatica (raffaella.fatica@liceomamiani.cloud)

Liceo statale "Terenzio Mamiani" (Rome, Italy)

HOW TO REDUCE AND MANAGE PLASTIC END-OF-LIFE AND FIND AN ALTERNATIVE TO PLASTIC?

This will be the incipit that will lead a 5th grade class, composed of 27 students, to acquire a series of knowledge related to plastic, the problem of pollution of the seas and oceans (objective 14 of the 2030 agenda) and the possibility of producing alternative and more sustainable materials such as bioplastics (objective 9 of the 2030 agenda). To develop this project, I intend to start with a series of questions that may arouse interest and curiosity in the students.

1st question: "Where does the need to find an alternative to plastics come from?"

We will start with plastic islands and analyse the degradation times of various types of materials, both plastic and others. This topic will conclude with a laboratory experiment that answers the question: "Can different plastics be recycled together?".

2nd question: "What is the chemical nature of plastics?"

This topic will include an introduction to the knowledge of polymers, starting with natural polymers such as carbohydrates, proteins and nucleic acids. We will focus on the proteins contained in milk. This topic will also conclude with a laboratory experience answering the question: "Is it possible to produce bioplastics?"

3rd question: "Are we sure that bioplastics, such as those derived from maize, are easier to dispose of than traditional plastics?"

Today, traditional plastics are joined by biodegradable and compostable plastics, but these are not necessarily easier to dispose of. To answer this question, we will start with the concepts of biodegradable and compostable and conclude with a laboratory experience that will show that even biodegradable plastics must be properly disposed of.

The process that will lead to the end-of-life of plastics will still be a long one, but if everyone becomes aware of the problem, perhaps it will be easier to achieve the goal.

How to cite: Fatica, R.: How to reduce and manage the end-of-life of plastics and find an alternative to plastics?, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-2873, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-2873, 2023.

Systems thinking competency, which UNESCO has identified as one of the key competencies for achieving the SDGs, is defined as the abilities to recognize and understand relationships; to analyse complex systems; to think of how systems are embedded within different domains and different scales; and to deal with uncertainty.(UNESCO,2017) In geography education, space is regarded as a system, and geographic system competency has been defined and its development has been advanced in German-speaking countries and other countries.

On the other hand, the assessment of geographic system competency in Europe, especially in Germany, is mainly based on paper tests, which are diagnostic assessments at a certain point in time, so there is much uncertainty about what daily practices in the classroom will contribute to the development of geographic system competency. Although the importance of the development of geographic system competency is gradually being recognized in Japan, there are still no reports of objective and quantitative analyses of the growth of competencies, and research on the process of competency development is still insufficiently accumulated.

In this research, I organized eight perspectives that correspond to students' thinking processes that support geographic system competencies, and developed a rubric that created evaluation criteria for each perspective. The reason for using a rubric as the assessment method is that it facilitates the visualization of the qualitative level of achievement of the competencies that students are currently acquiring, and enables the sharing of perspectives and processes with students as general competencies that are not dependent on the learning content of the material taught in class. In designing the rubric, I referred to the accumulation of previous studies on geographic system competencies in German-speaking countries and the Standards for secondary geography education presented by the German Geographical Society (DGfG). The rubric includes the following perspectives: mapping relationships among elements, being aware of time scales and perspectives of various people, and proposing alternatives to solve current problems after identifying one's own priority value criteria. This corresponds to the order of thinking that students need to use systems thinking.

Based on this, I conducted a class on banana plantation and used this rubric to visualize the students' achievement and provide feedback. By analyzing the results of the rubric assessment and student questionnaires, the following four points regarding the development of geographic system competencies became clear.

・To enable the process and assessment of individual students' systems thinking, which has been difficult to see previously.

・To enable students to metacognize the level of achievement of their geographic system competencies (and their perspectives) and to encourage reflection on what needs to be improved.

・To help students recognize the importance of systems thinking themselves, and to provide an opportunity for them to change, which will lead to the development of competency.

・To enable students to become aware of the difficulty of finding solutions to problems based on their complexity, and to develop an attitude of citizenship that encourages them to take a proactive role in realizing a sustainable society.

How to cite: Shuto, K.: Developing and assessing systems thinking competencies in geography education: through rubric-based feedback, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-3030, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-3030, 2023.

Nowadays, to understand and, ultimately, to control climate changes, considered one of the main international current topics, it is imperative to reduce the CO₂ concentration in the atmosphere, otherwise the environmental, economic, and social consequences will be enormous. The reduction of CO₂ can be carried out using several options, each one having technological, environmental, and economic advantages and/or disadvantages. In this regard, the CO₂ geological sequestration represents itself as an alternative, which is technologically feasible in depleted conventional deposits of oil and natural gas, in abandoned collieries and/or deep unexploited coal seams, and in deep saline aquifers. In the current state of knowledge, the geological sequestration of CO₂ in Portugal, among all available options, will only be possible in existing coal abandoned mines, and deep saline aquifers.

In 2022, a highly interactive work was carried out by secondary school students from Dr. Machado de Matos School Grouping, and researchers from the Fernando Pessoa University – Porto, the main goal being to study and understand the role of coal, in layers in abandoned Portuguese mines, in CO₂ geological sequestration. For this purpose, the students were confronted with different data published in scientific journals and, ultimately, they tried to understand which coals and which Portuguese mines are more suitable to the CO₂ sequestration. Additionally further work will be developed regarding air quality of the place where the school is located.

How to cite: Vieira da Silva, J., Rodrigues, C., Pimenta, C., and Lemos de Sousa, M. J.: Understanding the role of coal in CO2 geological sequestration, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-3522, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-3522, 2023.

                   The desire to explore cosmic space, the curiosity that leads to discoveries, and the joy of knowledge are the intense feelings that each of us possesses. Students of any age are keen to learn new things, but in the 21st-century learning has to get new valences, its instruments being stronger and more creative. Motivated by the astronauts and space exploration researchers, but also by their passions, a group of adolescents, and 10th-grade students from the National College of Computer Science, Piatra-Neamt, Romania, made an amazing journey into the knowledge universe. This poster reveals this extraordinary learning project, a real and challenging adventure. The purpose of the “C4TS in Space” project, was to build and successfully launch a high-altitude balloon filled with Helium, which would climb to the upper limit of the atmosphere, where the cosmic space begins, then descend with a parachute and be recovered.

                   Over a year and a few months, the students have documented, deepened, and correlated the notions of mechanics and thermodynamics and made models of the ascension and descent of the balloon for different values ​​of its payload weight. Students chose the parameters of the atmosphere to be measured and the sensors that could be used, built the hardware, and programmed the data acquisition device. They also studied and documented how to directly communicate data from sensors to the ground. Given that the balloon has been crossing areas with air traffic, a thorough documenting of air legislation and completing all the necessary formalities for the legality of the flight was needed.

                  The whole project was a success, both in terms of launching/recovering the balloon and from an educational point of view. The feelings the students have experienced in processing data and watching videos from the balloon, at the limit of cosmic space, led them to want to participate in more projects and made them aware of the complexity of their acquired knowledge. 

                   Likewise, for me as an educator, the project has been an opportunity to guide students through open learning approaches.

How to cite: Bejan, D. C.: "C4TS IN SPACE" project – Carrying Four Tiny Sensors with a high-altitude balloon at the upper limit of the atmosphere, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-3583, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-3583, 2023.

"After class" activities are very useful for most students, especially since there are some of them who don't have the best family life. In the case of such a young person, extracurricular activities are welcome because they can change his outlook on life and guide him to a better path. If at home he lacks the "mentor", the person to guide him, the young person will look for one outside, so it is advisable to be a responsible adult, a teacher, a guide

Such activities are of real importance all the more so as we live in a world dominated by the mass media, here referring to the television, computer and internet, which do nothing but contribute to the transformation of our children into incapable persons to control oneself behaviorally, emotionally.

The extracurricular and extracurricular projects have the broadest interdisciplinary character, they offer the most effective ways of forming children's character, because they are the educational factors closest and most accessible to their souls. Having an attractive character, children participate in an atmosphere of good will and optimism, with zest and dedication to such activities.

Students who consistently participate in extracurricular and extracurricular activities have a lower level of aggression, something that should be taken into account by students, parents and teaching staff, and last but not least by the higher authorities, in order to reduce violence. The various extracurricular activities that students have access to, promoted by the mass media, provide a favorable framework for energy consumption and the release of accumulated tension.

In this work we will detail the methods with which the teachers of Forest Technological High School of Ramnicu Valcea have implemented a suite of extra-curricular activities, which led not only our students, but also our teachers, to develop their personal and professional skills. Moreover, we show how these activities strengthen the bond between the teacher and the student, while also flourishing their abilities to make new friends amongst their peers and even beyond.

How to cite: Lazar, A. S.: Interdisciplinarity through extra-curricular projects, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-3586, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-3586, 2023.

In our century, considering the increasing environmental problems, natural disasters, the raw materials of indispensable products we use in daily life are obtained from nature and natural destructions are considered, geoscience education is very important for countries. The main purpose of geoscience education is to enable individuals to have knowledge of natural processes and to understand how human activities affect the Earth. One of the most important stages of geoscience education is to ensure the professional development of teachers. For this purpose, EGU (European Geosciences Union) Committee on Education (CoE)  has started the Geoscience Education Field Officer Programme and within the scope of this program, the geoscience workshops held in Türkiye. The aim of the workshops is to provide the professional development of teachers who have geoscience elements in their curriculum with interactive activities.

Workshops that develop critical thinking and creativity and enable participants to learn from their own experiences are planned for two hours. Workshop activities are planned as interactive and hand on group work and consist of easily accessible and simple materials. After the workshops, data is collected with the evaluation form provided by EGU. According to the evaluation form, it is seen that the participants showed a high level of interest in the workshop.

Participating teachers declared that the hands-on activities in the workshop were experiments and activities that could be carried out with easily accessible materials that could attract the attention of students and enable them to learn more effectively by doing / experiencing geosciences. 84 percent of the teachers wanted such workshops to be held more frequently in the future. The collected data confirms that the geocience Education Workshop in Türkiye has a positive impact on the participating teachers. This finding is supported by the teachers' high level of interest in the workshop, expressing the workshop as a useful and enjoyable environment where they learn from their own experiences, and they plan to attend future workshops.

How to cite: Kafalı, C.: EGU (European Geosciences Union) Field Officer Programme In Türkiye, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-3636, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-3636, 2023.

One of the three main thematic groups of Civic Education, introduced in Italian schools since September 2020, is "Sustainable development, environmental education, knowledge and protection of heritage and the territory". This thematic group allows me to develop the issues related to geosciences in the 2030 Agenda with an interdisciplinary approach in upper secondary school, an aspect that I am facing during my PhD.

One of the activities that I will propose to a class according to a horizontal approach will be centered on GOAL 15 and is entitled "Integrating geodiversity and biodiversity towards the Agenda 2030 goal 15 -Life on Earth": the path will take about 6 hours and one or two educational outings in the area. In these lessons students will explore the differences between two natural environments i.e. mountain and coastal, appropriate sites nearby my school are the: Botanical Garden of the Apuan Alps  “Pellegrini - Ansaldi” and Massaciuccoli lake. The classes involved could be third or second classes and the degree of in-depth study of the disciplines will be declined accordingly. The activities will directly involve the students using brainstorming and laboratory activities (geological maps of the study areas will be used and rock samples will be investigated), the educational outings will be useful precisely to verify in the field whether there is a correlation between geodiversity and biodiversity. The theme of desertification as a consequence of both biological and geological environmental impoverishment will also be addressed to make people reflect on how this has an impact on the people involved and on the impacts that desertification has on the other SDGs.

Within the poster I will present one of the projects that I intend to propose to schools as part of my PhD which concerns precisely identifying points of integration between the different subjects that make up the subject of teaching, i.e. the Natural Sciences with the aim of making students more aware of Earth Sciences issues.

How to cite: Furfori, I.: A key for education towards the Agenda 2030 Goals: the integration among geosciences, biology and chemistry., EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-3694, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-3694, 2023.

Sup’sciences is a group of around ten students of 11^th and 12^th level, chosen among volunteers in the Lycée Branly (Dreux, France). We talk about scientific projects and scientific research. This year we study the space with IRiS. We also went to the National Museum of Natural History and we invited the scientist we met there for a conference. It can help for our orientation because we deal with the scientific approach and we can see different jobs related to science.

IRiS (French acronym for Initiation to Astronomical Research for Students) is a semi-professional telescope built for students to perform astronomical observations. It is located in the Haute-Provence Observatory (OHP), near Saint-Michel-l'Observatoire in the Southern French Alps. The telescope is controlled at distance using a web page, which is very simple to use (a simple one-hour training for the teacher in charge of the class is sufficient). The individual pictures are taken using filters (near-infrared to ultraviolet).

We applied for a first project in scholar year 2021-2022. The idea was to make a celestial trip and discover nice objects in the deep sky. First of all, the students were invited to visit the historical astronomical observatory in Paris downtown, to discover ancient instruments and discuss with a famous astrophysicist, Françoise Combes. On January 3^rd, 2022, we made our first observation night. The telescope first was focused on the Orion constellation and, by trials and errors, we succeeded to make great images, particularly the Horsehead Nebula. We met a second time, on February 2^nd, 2022, but the wind cancelled the observation night before all observations. The students took advantage of this evening to analyze and combine the first session images, in order to make colored compositions.

For the scholar year 2022-2023, a new project was accepted by the IRiS team. We would like to focus now on planets. As IRiS allows only imaging deep sky objects, we will use it to observe exoplanets transits in front of their star by measuring its transitory luminosity diminution. Unfortunately, the telescope’s camera broke down just before our night and we have to wait. Meanwhile, we got in touch with a local astronomy association. Our first observation night, allotted to Moon and Solar System planets observation, was cancelled because of the bad weather, but another night is planned in January.

How to cite: Jammart, E., Basa, S., Mille, B., Lemee, L., Marchand, L.-E., Marciaux, C., Chiev, E., and Houari, M.: IRiS: a professional telescope at the service of students, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-3862, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-3862, 2023.

Walking around your place and doing some field work is essential to know and learn in Geoscience, especially considering that my students and I live next to the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Geopark. The teachers of the biology and geology department plan outdoor activities within the curriculum for our students every year:

- All first level students in high school are invited to visit the botanical garden and the volcanoes house in Rodalquilar, both located in the heart of our Geopark.

- All third level students must go walking to the beach “El Algarrobico” to research about the coast, with previous stops in some geological and botanical spots.

- All fourth level students can visit the gypsum caves in the karst of Sorbas, a unique protected natural land close to big quarries.

- Our older students in first level of bachellor go for walks outside our school with the collaboration of physical education teacher. Besides they are invited to participate in the local phase of geology olympiads, at the University of Almería for a weekend.

How to cite: Cantos, J. M.: Walking around the geopark of Cabo de Gata-Níjar- Spain, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-3873, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-3873, 2023.

The teaching of geology in French programs is devoted to, what is called SVT (e.g. life and earth sciences). With the evolution of the curricula, the pedagogical approach of geosciences has changed.The teaching of geosciences is anchored in concrete themes that are part of the students’ world, and in the challenges they’ll face in their future.

In middle school, we approach meteorological, climatic, volcanic and seismic phenomena from the prism of risk. We are talking about the exploitation of resources in connection with energies, soils in connection with agroecology. We are talking about the transformation of landscapes due to erosion and human action.

In high school, whatever the specialties chosen, the question of climate change is linked to renewable energies, carbon cycle, "pollution".The best way to involve students in these issues is to make them actors in educational projects.

Let me develop here some examples of educational projects carried out around different areas of activity:

• The evolution of landscapes, risk and resource management

I organized several field trips for SVT teachers and students in collaboration with the local university. Dakar offers an urban environment that at first sight is unfavorable to geological exploration because the pace of construction there is intense. The geological bedrock is mostly sedimentary. Ages ranging from Late Cretaceous to Miocene. Volcanic episodes can be identified. This exploration of the Cape Verde Peninsula is part of the general framework of the evolution of the MSGBC sedimentary basin, its geodynamic history and the evolution of a passive margin linked to the opening of the Atlantic.

The outing gives you the opportunity to observe several outcrops and to illustrate with relevance the notions of risks related to erosion and the nature of the bedrock.

• Ocean biodiversity and geoscience

In September 2022; the schooner TARA made a stopover in Dakar. Our students discovered the methods of ocean exploration. I then based much of the educational progression of my middle school classes on this simple question: Why does oceans matter? The students were able to link global warming to its impact on marine life. Meeting and interviewing local fishermen as well as scientists working on these issues enriched their knowledge. Participation in scientific competitions as an apprentice reporter or a budding ambassador were an opportunity to observe, experiment and communicate widely on this theme.

• Management of environments, soils and geoscience

The food resource is a major local issue. Appropriate cultivation techniques make it possible to preserve the soil and therefore the cultivable area. The formation of soils, their maintenance or their erosion is an important issue related to the teaching of geoscience. Our students have won the “Alimenterre” (=Food/Earth) competition prize for two consecutive years by producing video capsules on these topics.

• Conclusion

Geoscience allow students to understand the major challenges humanity is facing in the 21st century, those of the environment, sustainable development, resource and risk management.

Global warming and its implications can be very worrying for our students, a project-based pedagogy on local and concrete objects allows students to feel like an actor and not a victim of the changes to come.

How to cite: freyssinel, I.: Promoting Geosciences Education for Sustainability by educational project, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-4156, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-4156, 2023.

The importance of geographical science in the life of each of us is difficult to overestimate. She is everywhere. Every child is a discoverer of this beautiful world from birth. Our task as teachers is to direct, suggest, give the right guidelines.

The study of the geography subject starts from the 5th grade and continues until the 11th. Not only children, but also adults have reconsidered the importance of knowledge about their region. This did not happen due to pleasant events. But the Ukrainian people wholeheartedly not only relearn, but also understand the laws of geography.

Our school is located in a picturesque corner of Ukraine, in the Poltava region. A river flows on the territory of the institution, a forest is nearby, and there are many flowers in the spring. Physical geography is studied by seeing, feeling nature and beauty.

Every year, in addition to geography lessons, children participate in competitions, writing scientific papers on current topics. For example, the student's recent topic was "Gastronomic tourism in the Poltava region". And it is not surprising. The region has its own culinary traditions, it is the unique code of the nation.

Today, geography lessons, like all other classes at our institution, are held online. This requires constant improvement and a modern approach to teaching the subject.

It is nice to note that after finishing school, children make the choice to connect their future profession with geography. These are geography teachers, tourism workers, and surveyors.

I also graduated from Anton Makarenko Poltava Lyceum and chose the profession of geography teacher.

To update the content of geography teaching, the institution cooperates with the university where geography teachers are trained. At one time, I also graduated from Poltava National Pedagogical University named after Korolenko. It is nice to continue to receive inspiration for work and new modern geographical knowledge.

It is the students who make us go forward and improve. A geography lesson should always be interesting, open children's minds to the understanding and beauty of this world.

The opportunity to participate in the GIFT 2023 Workshop on «The key role of geosciences for the global challenge of sustainable development: the Agenda 2030» is a difficult challenge for me, but a great opportunity at the same time.

How to cite: Kitchenko, V.: Geography in Ukraine, at school, in the heart, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-4287, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-4287, 2023.

In the Gulf of Corinth area in Central Greece, for about 30 years, a concerted effort is being performed to better understand the Geophysical processes (Earthquakes, Landslides, Tsunamis) that take place. It is one of the narrowest and fastest extending continental regions worldwide and has one of the highest seismicity rates in the Euro-Mediterranean region.

The area is studied by research teams from all over Europe and a network, the Corinth Rift Laboratory (C.R.L.), has been established. Aiming to perform the most complete and thorough studies, many instruments have been installed (~70 Seismometers, Accelerometers, GNSS satellite receivers, etc.). The Corinth Rift Laboratory (CRL) is a Near Fault Observatory (NFO) within the European Plate Observing Systems (EPOS).

Since 2016, every year, the "School of the Corinth Rift Laboratory" (CRL School), the educational component of this natural Observatory, is being held in the CRL area with the support of EGU – GIFT, to educate Primary and Secondary Education Teachers and University Students in the ‘real’ research issues.

The aims of the school are to:

• Bring the Research/University community in contact with Primary and Secondary Education Teachers to enrich their knowledge, with an impact on the most efficient and targeted education and its dissemination to students.
• Intensify osmosis and collaboration between Teachers from different schools in European countries.
• Be next to the on-site research and related activities carried out in the scientific fields of Seismology, Geophysics, Geodesy, Tectonics and Geology for the physical laboratory of CRL.
• To inspire Teachers for new actions and for new activities and tasks that they can assign to students.
• To encourage them to participate in international scientific conferences in specific thematic areas in education (such as E.G.U.)

During the C.R.L. School, School Teachers participate in activities as:

• Introduction to Seismology, Geophysics, Geodesy, Tectonics and Geology, focused on the Gulf of Corinth through lectures, hands-on and field trips by Researchers, University Professors, Academic students and Primary –Secondary Education Teachers.
• Seismological, Geodetic and Geological measurements and visits to permanent operational stations.
• Hands-on for locating earthquakes in the Gulf of Corinth area using real waveform data.
• Operate and use special educational equipment for measuring and understanding seismic vibrations.
• Acquaintance with modern educational tools and methodology for the school classroom.
• Further analysis of measurements in student classes, in collaboration with C.R.L. partner schools and educators participating in C.R.L. and E.G.U..
• Earth Observation with emphasis on ground deformation measurements from satellite microwave radars and its application to C.R.L., with presentations and in the laboratory.
• Geohazards with emphasis on seismic hazard and implications in technical Geology, as the Rio - Antirrio Bridge case.

Teachers' participation is completely free with a grant from E.G.U..

How to cite: Danaskos, F., Makri, K., Kaviris, G., and Elias, P.: The CRL School in the European Education community and the modern classroom, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-4424, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-4424, 2023.

Global warming, which is the agenda issue of the global challenge of sustainable development, will become the big problem of today's younger generation. Recently various studies have been carried out on this subject in many fields such as energy, transportation, agriculture and architecture. As a biology teacher, this situation of the future generation, causes me concern as global warming will be the main focus of their lives. For this reason, I believe that raising student awareness about global warming is a priority.

In my opinion, the first step of this awareness is to make students pay attention to this extremely important topic. I usually use ‘research-review educational method’ in my biology lessons for raising awareness by giving a real situation and problem that the students must solve. By doing this, they should be able to grasp the subject and working together in teams, acquire important problem-solving skills, which will enable them to come up with creative ideas which can then be evaluated.

Our story starts with the question 'What challenges life in Antarctica other than the cold?' continues with the next question ‘what kind of life will we expect in the future?’ and concludes with a global warming awareness survey. Based on the living conditions of Antarctica, I carry out a study by drawing attention to what they know about this subject and what they could do if they were in such a situation. I am planning to present some processes from student's work in my poster. As a result, children’s imagination and awareness can be the science fiction movie for today but maybe it is a reality of the future.

How to cite: Akin, A.: İs it science fiction movie or reality of the future ?, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-4480, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-4480, 2023.

The hydrosphere characterizes our planet distinguishing it from the others in the solar system. The purpose of this work is to sensitize high school students to the Goal 14 of Agenda 2030. This goal is about conserving and sustainably using the oceans, seas, and marine resources.

The students, after studying the main chemical-physical and biological characteristics of marine waters, continental waters and glaciers, will calculate their ecological footprint on the Global Footprint Network website, by using the Ecological Footprint Calculator. Then they will be asked to reflect on their behavior to understand how an individual behavior or a government can influence environmental sustainability.

In second step, the effects of ocean acidification, the impact of plastic and microplastic pollution, climate change and fishing will be evaluated.

In the first phase of the study, the students will carry out activities in the chemical-biological laboratory of the school for the characterization of marine water. The following measurement will be performed: pH, density, temperature, effects of acid pH on the calcareous structures of marine animals.

How to cite: Stornelli, C.: Taking care of our planet: measuring and managing the environmental impact, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-4498, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-4498, 2023.

"Erasmus+" is an international programme funded by the European Commission to promote cooperation and mutual understanding between schools, students and teachers within the European Union.   Green Energy Saves the Earth is a joint project for the years 2020 – 2023 in cooperation with 6 countries and 6 schools. The project brings scientific solutions in the context of climate change, pollution and other environmental problems.

The aim of our project is to teach green energy, which are the advantages and possibilities of improving life on the planet using renewable energy.  The "Green Energy Saves the Earth" project is a much-needed project for a new generation that delivers a sustainable outcome for the future of the planet. It is a guide with practical information designed for students and teachers worldwide. In the context of climate change and environmental pollution, we aimed to inform students about the use of green renewable energy that does not harm the atmosphere and climate, to make them aware of the consequences of air pollution and how solutions can be produced with green energy.

The target group is students aged 11-15 years, because at this age students are able to learn more actively and assimilate more the knowledge and practice available to them. Erasmus+ projects provide the opportunity to associate the learning experience with a strong emotional friendship context as well as scientific information.

How to cite: Kaya, M. C.: Green Energy Saves the Earth, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-4519, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-4519, 2023.

As secondary High school,, Orde Copela ”- Prilep, from Macedonia, we are part of The Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program since 2008.  This worldwide science and education program with Pedosphere protocols was the base for my  program that additionally increases my students' knowledge about soil, named Pedosphere.  It was approved by center for secondary vocational education of Macedonia and is applied in my school as an additional subject. For two years I and my students have gain, networked and let data be compared with other countries in GLOBE program all around the world. Responsible research was the goal and that led to the awareness of the harm that climate change develop for the soil.

Soil is not an isolated element, it’s a dynamic living system.

We walk on the soil, we live on the soil and we feed from the soil, but soil importance  is often taken for granted. For agriculture production in my country, soil is the most important medium.  On the world level, the health of the soil is under great pressure by climate change extremes. Deforestation, erosion, overgrazed grasslands, pollution, population growth, migration and urbanization are additional massive stress factors. Soil as a part of pedosphere forms very slowly, for decades and even centuries, and requires regeneration longer than one human lifetime. It is imperative that our students recognize soil not just as a dirt, but as a resource of global priority for sustainable agriculture and food production.

 “Be the change that you wish to see in the world,” said Mahatma Gandhi.

We started there, by improving our knowledge about soil and it’s properties and increasing awareness about soil importance. Making continuous measurements of soil temperatures , structure, consistency, fertility, pH environment, taking soil samples by ,,Star method’’ by GLOBE protocols for water content in the soil, and entry data into the GLOBE network is wonderful experience for the students that increase their knowledge and awareness.  Presenting protocols for data collecting and comparing them with others schools around the globe encourages students understanding  climate change and it’s effect of soil health. Continuous research and collecting data about soil characteristics and soil degradation on their own, augment students awareness about achieved data results, gain knowledge and eagerness for next research.

I am sure that this can be one good way to protect and rebuild our soil systems.

How to cite: Jagurinoska, R.: Accurate information is power, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-4986, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-4986, 2023.

The interdisciplinary water study was carried out in Oradea, the analysis focused on water purity and the influence of water quality on the ecosystem.

In education programs water is studied by the disciplines of Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Geography and Environmental Sciences.

Students from the "Mihai Eminescu" National College in Oradea, guided by their teachers they made some interesting studies about water with an emphasis on the analysis of the Pețea geothermal stream, with endangered endemic species.

Water related studies were carried out during the lessons from education programs but also in non-formal education activities. The water analysis was performed with HPLC from the University of Oradea. Students did research about water in specialized institutes, but also in the middle of nature. They studied living plants, insects and animals in wet areas. At the end of the studies carried out with the waters of the area (the Crișul Repede river and the Pețea stream) the students organized workshops and seminars to disseminate their work.

How to cite: Ramona, M.: Analysis of water purity and its influence on ecosystems, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-5110, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-5110, 2023.

In 2010 in Italy a major change in Upper secondary school guidelines have been implemented, and the topic "Natural Science" was strongly affected by this reform (MIUR, 2010). Thanks to the new guidelines Earth science topics were distributed along 5 years of curricula in some fields of study, while before the reform geology topics were studied only during one school year. The new guidelines promoted the use of an experimental and multidisciplinary approach in natural science teaching and outdoor activities. After this reform, Realdon et al (2016) investigated how teachers implemented the new Earth Sciences curriculum through the five teaching years by means of a survey. The aim of this research was to understand the implementation of the new guidelines after the end of the first cycle of studies. Realdon et al (2016) results showed that most of the teachers interviewed did not follow strictly the new guidelines, in fact, there was a tendency to follow old teaching habits and practices, and theoretical teaching was still prevailing as the scarce use of laboratory.

In 2022 the eighth cycle of students completed their upper secondary school studies according to MIUR (2010) guidelines, for this reason, we decided to distribute a new survey to natural science teachers to study the state of the art of earth science topics in Italian upper secondary school. The aim of the survey is to understand how to support Italian natural science teachers in their didactical activities with reference to Earth Science topics. This research is needed due to the major change that happened in Italian upper secondary schools after the Covid emergency and the remote learning experience, and evaluate the actual possibility for upper secondary school teachers to work multidisciplinary on civic education, and in particular on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In the survey we investigated the use of digital and online line tools to support earth science teaching, and if there are other types of didactical support needed by teachers. In this poster, we will present the first result of the survey, in particular, the needs expressed by Italian teachers and how they can be supported by Earth Science Faculties and the Italian ministry of education.

MIUR , Indicazioni nazionali (D.M. n 211 del 7/10/2010) “Indicazioni nazionali riguardanti gli obiettivi specifici di apprendimento concernenti le attività e gli insegnamenti compresi nei piani degli studi previsti per i percorsi liceali”

Realdon, G., Paris, E., & Invernizzi, M. C. (2016). Teaching Earth Sciences in Italian liceo high schools following the 2010 reform: a survey. Rendiconti Online Società Geologica Italiana, 40, 71-79.

How to cite: Gravina, T. and Iannace, A.: Earth science teaching in Italy and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), how is going?, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-5484, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-5484, 2023.

A pictogram is an image on a label that contains a warning symbol and special colors to provide information about the harmfulness of substances or mixtures, or how these substances can affect us or the environment. The CLP Regulation introduced a new system for the classification and labeling of hazardous chemicals in the European Union, and it has also been adopted in Serbia. The pictograms have changed and are now in line with the Globally Harmonized System of the United Nations

               In the seventh grade of elementary school, when students are introduced to chemistry, the new subject they are studying, it is planned to learn basic pictograms in the part of curriculum called  ​​the Chemical Laboratory.

               In class, students are introduced to the concept of pictograms. Then the students are presented with basic pictograms that they may encounter in their everyday life. After that, students should find pictograms on the packaging of chemical products used in the household and food packaging, recognize them and determine their meaning. After that, students are given the task of designing a pictogram for a topic of their choice.

            This activity can be carried out with different age groups of students with adjustments to the teaching content.

How to cite: Ugrenović, B. and Kovačić, B.: We invent pictograms, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-7242, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-7242, 2023.

Climate change is an important theme which is addressed in many subjects nowadays in Finnish curriculum.  Young people are also very worried about and interested in climate change.  Understanding causes and effects of climate change is important as well is thinking about different ways to make a difference, what could be done and who should be doing it. Sustainable development is one important way of making the change towards cooler planet.

I planned and held an online course of human geography with climate change point of view as part of a project Climate Change to Upper Secondary Schools. In this project three online courses were planned: 1,5 Degrees Life Skills for Young People, Human Geography (“in Climate Change Marinade”) and Climate Knowledge. The idea of online courses was to increase important future skills like critical thinking, problem solving, influencing the society, which would give strength to young people on their way to a better future.  My course Human Geography was the only one evaluated with a grade and directed only to older upper secondary school students. The other courses were evaluated only as approved or failed and they were open also to younger secondary school students.

In my Human Geography course we studied the basics of human geography so that in every topic, were it population changes or natural resources, also how it is linked to climate change, was considered. Also, assignments that students did were linking together climate change and the topic studied.  

During the time of corona pandemic part of students got accustomed to studying independently online, and interest in studying this way has increased. This is why, at least in Finland, online courses in schools seem to become more and more common. They are also cheap way to provide studying possibilities in a country where we have lot of small villages great distances apart one another.

In my poster I’ll describe what kind of course my Human Geography was and how it was accomplished.

How to cite: Hallanoro, L.: Course of human geography with climate change point of view, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-7278, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-7278, 2023.

Gamification is a pedagogical strategy that introduces principles of gaming in learning environments by promoting participation and enhancing motivation. The literature indicates that whenever students are involved in playful educational experiences, motivation is significantly increased compared to the typical educational activities while emotional intelligence and well-being are also cultivated. Studying in a distraction-free atmosphere helps students foster a positive attitude towards learning as they can study and participate at their own speed, free of peers and teachers pressure.

Escape rooms as a didactic tool in teaching and learning is still in its nascent stages, but recent researches have proven that it does not just offer students’ exposure to technology but a higher level of critical thinking, decision making under time constraints, communication, creative innovation, confidence and collaboration amongst peers.

My colleagues and I are involved in a project that gives the students of our school the opportunity to participate in creating and promoting escape rooms as a learning activity in order to present a different teaching approach. The context varies among science, environmental problems, sustainability, geography, space, math and technology. We combine the team based learning method and the project based method in order to study each topic, collect information, write a story, create relative puzzles and include them in each escape room. When digital escape rooms are ready, teams exchange their links trying to solve them and accomplish their missions. In this way, students are involved in different topics and obtain knowledge by exploring, creating and collaborating. All of the above is going to be presented to our poster.

How to cite: Alexandropoulou, A. and Tsezou, A. –.: Teaching science, sustainability and technology through gamification: The approach of escape rooms., EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-7397, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-7397, 2023.

How to cite: Berenguer, J. L., Tartaru, D., Balestra, J., and Saliby, C.: Data Mining at school with InSight space mission, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-8290, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-8290, 2023.

Ukrainian Physical and Mathematical Lyceum of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv is a special educational institution where talented teenagers from different regions of the country study and live in a campus. Mathematics, Physics, Astronomy, Informatics, Chemistry are the main subjects which students learn on more advance levels than in ordinary schools. But to integrate their knowledge and to shape correct scientific imagination about nature and the Earth, it is important to study Geography.

Activities of the geography teacher include curricular classes and outclass work. On the lessons teacher helps students to analyze and search correct information for specific topic of the lesson. For example, about climate change, the new energy sources, the land reclamation, the mining of rare earth elements, the disturbance of forest ecosystems, etc.

But the more possibilities in learning to write and work on scientific topics, students have after main classes by individual work with the teacher. Students work on their own small research projects, write and submit the thesis to the competition-defense jury. This competition has three stages starting on school level then city level and the most successful projects are defended at the national level. The organizer of this competition is the Junior Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

The students can get useful experience when they take part in school conference of scientific students' reports -"Scientific Olympus". The conference includes the 7–8 sessions such as physics, mathematics, geography, biology, chemistry, computer science and humanitarian sciences. A two month before students select the problem, they are interested in, and prepare a report.

In 2021, 2022 our students took part in a joint project of the Junior Academy of Sciences of Ukraine with the American SSEP (Student Spaceflight Experiments Program). They were proposed to create their own research projects and test them in microgravity conditions in space on the International Space Station. These projects were focused on biology and chemistry sciences. Students were divided in groups of 3–5 persons, supervised by teachers as facilitators. The most difficult requirement was to limit the research in a mini-laboratory – a small hermetically sealed silicone tube with volume of 9.2 ml.

Apart from these projects the teaching activity includes meetings with scientists, excursions to the geological and science museums, coordination of the competition-game “Heliantus” (Geography, Physics, Chemistry, Biology), geography olympiads.

There are much more difficulties for students now with the full-scale russian war on Ukraine, and it requires even more efforts from teachers to provide them with high quality education in natural sciences and particularly in geosciences, since the war has huge impact on ecosystems which need to be recovered by new generations of researchers and engineers.

In the future as for tomorrow in our Lyceum we are looking forward to continuing the above activities and to joint other projects in cooperation with educational institution and resources from other countries.

How to cite: Melnyk-Mirzoian, A.: Geoscience Today And Tomorrow In The Ukrainian Physical And Mathematical Lyceum Of Taras Shevchenko National University Of Kyiv, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-8727, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-8727, 2023.

The teaching of science’s history can contribute to the understanding of the content of science as well as the position of a science. Learning the importance of science, the student can clarify the concepts that govern it as well as their evolution. "Using history can humanize science, help students improve their critical thinking skills, promote a deeper understanding of scientific concepts, and address common student misconceptions that often resemble those of scientists of old" (Matthews, 1994).

According to Tomas Kuhn the character of change marked linguistically can change the criteria by which scientific terms are associated with the nature and categories of objects as well as the networks they develop within a group of terms, based on whose new paradigm is constituted and marks a break with the traditional one (Kuhn, 1970). In simpler words, conceptual change is associated with the creation of new terms and new concepts around a scientific object. To explore a set of scientific terms pertaining to a particular theory, the terms should also be explored within an environment in which their scientific terminology appears. The importance of the linguistic meaning of a term is also captured by Gundaroulis (2013). She emphasizes that language indicates social change and is a determining factor that allows us to realize changes and attributes to language both a social and a scientific character.

The context of a scientific term can be a theory, such as Wegener's theory, or a wider field with clear time boundaries, such as the community of geoscientists of the 20th century. Wegener's theory includes the concepts of movement and dynamic balance in the cognitive subconscious, in contrast to the concepts of stativity and the upheavals and subsidence’s of the Earth's crust that prevailed until that period. Decades later, during the development of the theory of Tectonics Plates a significant number of new concepts emerged, in relation to the previous dominant theory of Wegener. To interpret and document the new theory, new terms were introduced into the geological vocabulary, completely changing the way scientific discourse is expressed and structured, the concepts: extension of the ocean floor, transform faults, subduction, lithosphere, asthenosphere etc. Essentially, it is a holistic approach to the study of the Earth and therein lies the characterization of revolutionary ness. This change involved the entire consideration of geological changes, highlighting the dynamics of the new interdisciplinary consideration.

In the proposed scenario, the aim is the students to recognize the new terms, the connection between them and the change from the previous ones. Through the scenario, students will cultivate their verbal skills, cultivate critical thinking, and understand the processes described by Tectonics Plates theory.

How to cite: Makri, K. and Danaskos, F.: The history of Geosciences, as teaching scenario, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-9044, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-9044, 2023.

The basis for our current „Ecogames in my curriculum” Erasmus+ project is teaching students the benefits of circular economy and how to use it.

The circular economy aims to minimize waste and pollution by using resources in a more efficient and sustainable way. This approach can help to reduce the negative environmental impacts of economic activity and improve economic efficiency. 

During our first LTT in Romania we taught students how to implement circular economy to support sustainable development. These are some examples of how we played to learn circular economy:

• For reducing waste (one of the key principles of a circular economy is to minimize waste by keeping resources in use for as long as possible), we organized a Circular Economy Fair where our students sold various objects crafted through strategies such as reuse, repair, refurbishment, and recycling.
• For promoting resource efficiency, our students created a wind turbine, they also taught the foreign students invited to the workshop how to create a photovoltaic panel by using resources more efficiently and minimizing waste. Both activities involved strategies such as designing products and systems that use fewer resources and are easier to repair or recycle.
• For supporting economic growth, our students presented their eco business plans since a circular economy can provide economic benefits by creating new business opportunities and promoting innovation. Our students focused on how this can help to create jobs and stimulate economic growth.
• For improving environmental sustainability, we invited our foreign guests to plant an oak for each country involved in the project. By conserving natural resources we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, thus lowering the environmental impacts of economic activity by minimizing waste and pollution.
• For enhancing social welfare, we proposed a food waste lesson followed by a gardening workshop. We organized a lesson with Romanian and foreign students promoting changes in consumer behaviour to reduce food waste requires, by using better food storage and preservation techniques, and improved food recovery and donation programs. Food waste is a major problem in developed countries, not only a financial burden, but it also has a negative environmental impact. After the lesson, each team received a gardening kit with researched seeds donated by the Seeds Bank from Suceava.

            Moreover, by reducing the amount of resources and materials that need to be produced, circular economy initiatives can help to reduce the cost of resources and services, making them more accessible to those with limited incomes. Finally, circular economy initiatives can also help to promote social inclusion by creating a more equitable access to resources and services, which can help to reduce poverty and inequality.

How to cite: Elefteriu, C.: Ecogaming for circular economy, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-9099, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-9099, 2023.

The poster refers to the curriculum of the subject “Education for sustainable development”, an optional subject for high school, that I designed for a time budget of 1 hour/week, with a duration of a school year. The aims of this curriculum are: the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach to some topical issues related to globalization, sustainable development and global citizenship; preparing high school students to understand the impact of problems that manifest themselves at the global level on individual and group development; the involvement of young people in the development and implementation of projects for development and in the promotion of appropriate behavior for sustainable development.

General skills are:

• The use of concepts specific to the discipline of Geography, Biology, Geology, Mathematics for the organization of knowledge and explanation of some facts, events, processes from real life;
• Applying the acquisitions specific to the Geography, Biology, Geology, Mathematics, Arts, ICT discipline in solving some problem situations, as well as in analyzing the personal contribution to sustainable development;
• Cooperating with others in solving theoretical and practical problems, within different groups;
• The manifestation of an active and responsible social behavior, appropriate to a changing world;
• Participation in decision-making and solving community problems;

At the end of this curriculum, team of students develop a project for local sustainable development using the components and stages of a project (design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, follow-up elements), developing and running/simulating the running of an project, elaboration of the project sheet, implementation of the proposed project/simulation of the implementation of the proposed project, evaluation of the proposed project.

How to cite: Chitu, A.: Teaching  Sustainable Development through indoor and outdoor activities, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-9230, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-9230, 2023.

This school year I am teaching physics and chemistry at Latino Coelho´s High school, in Lamego, north of Portugal, one of the oldest schools of the region, started the activity in the nineteenth century (1880). Like lots of others centuries-old schools in Portugal, I understood that Latino Coelho’s High school has a heritage of ancient and valuable laboratorial instruments that  are of high interest and must be shown to the scientific community. Some of this equipment, related particularly with natural and physical sciences issues, is still in use, so teachers and students have the opportunity to work with. This legacy is an important resource to develop skills in the scope of History of Science as a testimony of the evolution of the technology, the science and the Portuguese school system. With this communication I intend to present some of the oldest instruments from my schools´ heritage as promoters of experimental science teaching through these 143 years of school activity.

How to cite: Borges, A. L. S.: Ancient science laboratorial instruments from Latino Coelho High school, Lamego, Portugal, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-9606, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-9606, 2023.

The organisation and functioning of this elementary class is multi-level (from Grade 1 to Grade 5) in all subjects except mathematics where there is individualisation of progress. Teaching is carried out in a class organised in table groups mixing levels, ages, boys and girls. The teaching is based on a change in the posture of the teacher, who is neither omniscient nor infallible but remains a model of human values: he does not know everything, but knows how to access what he does not yet know, he is demanding and benevolent as the pupils, future citizens, must learn to be. Well-being and confidence are the first objectives before learning. The functioning of the class is also based on a class cooperative with elected pupils (president, treasurer and secretary) who have certain responsibilities (meetings, management of certain learning activities, certain small or large projects, certain parts of the life of the class). The organisation of learning time alternates between individual work and cooperative and/or collective work, theory, practice and confrontation with reality.Science teaching is an essential part of learning. It develops curiosity, questioning, the formulation of hypotheses, experimentation and the construction of models for representing the world. In this context, geosciences have a regular place because they provide elements of knowledge and understanding that are central to other subjects in the school curriculum or to understanding the world. The poster will try to show this and some aspects of what the class, in particular, has done to discover tectonic and volcanism in reality.

How to cite: Grandclément, D.: Geosciences and alternative teaching practices in a French primary school., EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-9730, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-9730, 2023.

The Geoscience Education Field Officers (GEFO) programme, launched in 2019 by the European Geosciences Union (EGU) Committee on Education (CoE), began in six countries (France, India, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, and Spain) with the support of the International Geoscience Education Organisation (IGEO) and the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS). Due its success, the EGU Council has approved its extension and the increase of participating countries for the current and upcoming years. Thus, a call was open and CoE received thirty-four teacher’s applications from twenty-two countries belonging to Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America. After a selection process, thirteen new GEFOs were appointed to represent Albania, Burkina Faso, Chile, Colombia, Estonia, Germany, Greece, India, Malaysia, Romania, Togo, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. As all the first GEFOs, the new ones are qualified and experienced geosciences teachers from different levels (Primary, Secondary and Higher education) and/or engaged and committed with Geosciences educational issues. In May 2022, the new GEFOs met in Barcelona for a face to face two-days training session organized and promoted by the ‘old’ GEFOs from Italy, France, Portugal, and Spain, and by their supporters (national teachers who help GEFOs in their role) from Portugal and Spain. The main goal of this training was to introduce the fundamental tool of the GEFO programme – the Earthlearningidea repository of teaching resources (www.earthlearningidea.com) - and provide them with the necessary skills to offer professional development to the teachers in their countries. During this two-days training, the new GEFOs assumed the role of teachers and performed several proposed hands-on activities. This method has allowed them to prepare themselves for their new role by first-hand knowing the activities and sharing knowledge and difficulties with their fellows      but, also, to recognize the barriers that the future attendant teachers can face in the workshops organized by GEFOs. So far, the GEFO team includes nineteenth members from eleven European (the EGU GEFOs) and eight non-European countries (the IGEO/IUGS GEFOs), working as an international network to promote geoscience education in an innovative and global way. In the future, the success of GEFOs programme could justify its expansion to other countries.

How to cite: P. Correia, G., Realdon, G., Pereira, H., Roca, A. A., Coupechoux, G., and Juan, X.: The EGU Geoscience Education Field Officer Programme is growing!, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-9754, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-9754, 2023.

The Agenda 2030, signed by United Nations Member States, set a plan to achieve 17 Goals in a 15-year time frame (from 2015 onwards) on three levels: global, local and people’s action. One of its targets (6.6.) is protecting and restoring water-related ecosystems, including rivers. Although rivers constitute complex ecosystems and require sustainable management, studies show that students have a simplified vision of rivers. Even textbooks represent rivers from a hydraulic (and not holistic) perspective. In Portugal, the Natural Sciences curriculum for the 8^th grade includes the organising theme “Sustainability on Earth”, implying the characterisation of an ecosystem surrounding the school from data collected in the field. “Projeto Rios” is an Iberian project which fosters the adoption of 500-meter sections of rivers or streams, promoting citizen science. As our school is located nearby “Rio Tinto” river, 20 students (13-16 years old), from an 8^th grade class, adopted a half-kilometre extent of their city’s river, with two main purposes: monitoring its state (in winter and spring) and cleaning the river ecosystem to protect its biodiversity. Following a field trip methodology, the project involved articulating with an Environmental Education County Centre and other subjects from the student’s curriculum.

In the first phase, students assessed their knowledge of the ecosystem concept of rivers and their sustainable management with a 9-question survey (based on Ladrera et al, 2020). In a second phase, established in groups of 3-4 elements, students investigated the river basin's geographic location, and degradation through time, due to pollution. In the next stage, students had lectures dynamized by technicians from the Environmental Education County Centre to establish the practical proceedings and logistic issues concerning the two field trips to be held (winter and spring). During the two mentioned field trips, students collected water samples, measured physical-chemical parameters, and characterised rivers’ biodiversity and geodiversity. The results were registered in a worksheet and an app survey (123 app survey). Positive student engagement obtained with this experience constituted an ignition to clean the riverbed and its banks during the third field trip. Students separated many kilograms of solid urban waste to be sent for recycling. Back in the classroom, students worked in groups for two weeks to analyse the data obtained and elaborate posters submitted to various feedback and exposed during the School Day Celebration. Those posters motivated the school community towards river conservation practices. Finally, students made a self/hetero assessment of their group work.

Overall, knowing real-world ecological issues right outside the classroom door raised students’ awareness about the importance of preserving local biodiversity and protecting the fragile balance of river ecosystems towards a sustainable future.

References

Ladrera, R.; Rodríguez-Lozano, P.; Verkaik, I.; Prat, N.; Díez, J.R. What Do Students Know about Rivers and Their Management? Analysis by Educational Stages and Territories. Sustainability 2020, 12, 8719. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12208719

How to cite: Pinto, T. and Vasconcelos, C.: Monitoring and protecting a river ecosystem near the school: a path to sustainability through field trips, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-10028, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-10028, 2023.

Portugal is known for its extraordinary beaches and inviting climate. But on our beaches there is much more to discover than just sun and sea. There is a country rich in geological data that allows us to reconstruct our history.

By observing geological occurrences in a given location, it is possible to understand what kind of environments existed and how they evolved. Aspects such as present lithologies or fossils allow deducing environments that existed in the past and, through tectonic and geomorphological aspects, it is possible to deduce how the site evolved after the deposition of strata.

Praia da Mareta, located in the Algarve Basin, is a place of high scientific and didactic value of the Portuguese South Zone’s Geological Heritage, particularly important for reconstructing the history of the Earth in the Jurassic period. This contemporary basin of the Lusitanian Basin (West Rim) would have been formed during the opening of the Tethys and Atlantic Ocean, undergoing an inversion, a phenomenon induced by the collision of the African and Eurasian plates in the Upper Cretaceous. At Praia da Mareta, the rocks that emerge are practically from the Middle Jurassic to the Upper Jurassic.

Due to this, Praia da Mareta is an excellent example of how the Algarve region, so known for its beaches, has an admirable geological wealth and still little explored by tourists.

One of the goals of this work is to develop interest in geology and geological research, to develop science for citizens, involving them in geoscientific research. Simplifying geological information and developing interest in geoscientific research brings citizens closer to nature, promoting sustainability and heritage protection, namely geological heritage.

How to cite: Assunção, M.: Middle Jurassic at Praia da Mareta, Algarve, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-10276, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-10276, 2023.

Students between the ages of 13-18 are required to take a general Earth Science course either in middle school as part of an accelerated  program or in high school as a requirement for graduation in New York State.  Many students find this material dry, uninteresting and irrelevant to the pressing issues they are facing in their community. Most importantly, they find the global issues discussed in a typical Earth Science class as being esoteric or too large in scope for any individual like themselves to determine solutions.

Enter hydroponics, a useful tool for students to learn valuable lessons on geoscience and sustainability in the classroom while also addressing issues the students in my community face on food justice. This year at my school, Comprehensive Model School Project, we incorporated a fully functioning hydroponics laboratory into our curriculum with the potential to produce over 200 pounds of fresh produce per year. In our hydroponics class we have delved deeper in many areas of geoscience and environmental studies and how they are connected with issues in our school community. Students learned valuable information connected to soil science, the hydrologic cycle and factors that affect plant growth. 

Incorporating hydroponics into our classroom has also been a valuable opportunity for students to learn about the challenges of food justice, as it allows them to explore issues such as food security, urban agriculture, and the environmental impacts of traditional agriculture. Hydroponics in the classroom is more than simply growing your own food without soil, students learn the importance of access to fresh, healthy food and the ways in which urban agriculture can help address these vital issues of food insecurity in their own communities.    

How to cite: Castro-Skehan, C.: Hydroponics in the Urban Classroom: Learning geoscience in the classroom while addressing issues on food justice., EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-10298, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-10298, 2023.

Ancient Greeks had myths to explain all the physical phenomena, such as thunders, earthquakes, landslides etc. I use these myths in the lesson of Geology – Geography to students at the age of 13 or 14 very often. Through the interpretation of the myths we extract meanings about the environment of the ancient ages. A myth that is directly related to the protection of the environment and the sustainability is “The myth of ERISYCHTON”. My students call it “The myth of sustainability”.

THE MYTH

The giant king Erysichthon was known for his disrespect. One day he wanted to enlarge his palace to show his power. So he ordered his slaves to cut the large oaks from his Kingdom and went to the forest that was dedicated to the goddess of agriculture Demeter.

Among the other trees was a tall sacred oak that was the favorite tree of the goddess Demeter and dedicated to her. Around this oak the Dryades Nymphs sang their beautiful songs and danced their magic dances. The ungodly Erysichthon did not stop his destructive work even in front of this sacred tree. However, with the first ax the priestess of Dimitra Nikippis appeared before him and tried him, but Erysichthon threatened her with his pickaxe. He grabbed an ax and said: "I do not care if this tree is loved by the Goddess. Even if she were here, they would throw her down if she stood in my way." He killed someone who tried to stop him, shouting: "Here is your reward for your pity." In the next blows of the ax, the oak, a huge tree with a thick trunk, sighed and blood flowed from the wound, and the nymph that lived inside it, dying with it, foresaw the punishment of the sacrilegious Erysichthon.

The goddess Demeter asked the Hunger to visit and conquer Erysichthon and when Erysichthon fell asleep, she visited him. Erysichthon dreamed that he was hungry, and when he woke up his hunger had become indescribable. From that moment he began to eat what he found in front of him. After eating what was eatable in his house, he went out and snatch offerings from the altars. He even sent his daughter Mistra to buy food for him. In the end, Erysichthon, having nothing to eat anymore, began to eat his own flesh… until he died.

INTERPRETATION OF THE MYTH

• We usually say that "nature punishes". What seems to us to be punishment is the reaction that our actions provoke when they disturb the balance of its elements. Human interventions, when directed by greed and recklessness, are dangerous, whether it is the destruction of a forest or the pollution of the atmosphere, rivers, and seas. The myth symbolizes the greed, the reckless exploitation of natural resources, symbolizes the modern man who without measure consumes insatiably and above his normal needs, depriving the future of children and all her living nature and eventually eats its own flesh and is led to extinction.

How to cite: Detsika, N.: Using Ancient Greek Myths to teach Geology in High School, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-10793, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-10793, 2023.

Science educational standards in the United States are not under federal mandates, but rather under state and local jurisdiction. Every few years, most districts and states revise and update their standards. One of the more recent curricular models that has been slowly gaining popularity across the US involves embracing the Next Generation Science Standards. These cover the breadth of K–12 science content standards in schools. They set the expectations for what students should know and be able to accomplish. The NGSS framework supports student growth in science and engineering practices as well as constructing and using scientific ideas to explain phenomena and solve real problems.

Many states, schools, districts, and teachers use a storyline approach as a hook to engage student learning. Others use the storyline as a defined series of events and lessons that are driven by student inquiry. A storyline starts with an interesting and perplexing phenomenon. Student-created driving questions will determine the direction of the class storyline. Through inquiry and experimentation, students track their progress and construct understanding to explain phenomena. 

In 2022 OpenSciEd, a nonprofit organization funded by the Carnegie Corporation and the Gates, Schusterman, and Hewlett foundations released a sequence of NGSS units themed with storylines for middle school science education. These were funded and created by a consortium of partners including BSCS Science Learning, Boston College, the Dana Center at The University of Texas-Austin, Digital Promise Global, and Northwestern University. This consortium facilitates the creation of sustainable, high-quality, NGSS-aligned science instructional materials that are available cost-free to all interested educators.

My school recently adopted OpenSciEd for our middle school science curriculum in grades 6-8. This poster session will demonstrate how the 6.5 OpenSciEd Unit on Natural Hazards addresses the use of a storyline to answer the unit question, “Where do natural hazards happen, and how do we prepare for them?” Tsunamis are the central focus of this unit. The anchoring phenomenon is designed to enable students to consider methods in which scientists detect tsunamis and how warning systems are engineered. Students ponder ways to mitigate damage to property from the flooding effects of tsunamis and protect human life. While students design solutions associated with this natural hazard during the learning process, they naturally become curious about how tsunamis form. The OpenSciEd storyline framework is an engaging way to teach students science standards.

How to cite: Kearns, T.: Using Sustainable Storylines to Support Next Generation Science Standards at the Middle School Level – Natural Hazards and Tsunamis, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-11223, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-11223, 2023.

We will present the training of secondary school science teachers in the region of Crete on climate change issues. The training is in the framework of a national educational program that includes topics related with climate change, like the drivers, the impacts and the measures for sustainability. Teachers participate actively in the workshops and are involved in hands-on activities and experiments that simulate climate phenomena in a simple way. The aim is to educate further their students in the climate science through topics that fit in the national science curriculum. The teachers are also trained in the hub that is developed by researchers of the University of Crete that is around the atmospheric monitoring station in Finokalia in Crete and is focused on the expertise of the Greek research group while it also adapts international scientific knowledge to the local special conditions. After training, teachers have the possibility to collaborate in groups to prepare their own lesson plans that are appropriate for their students. They also implement the activities in the classroom, assess the implementation in practice and propose potential improvements. The proposed methodology is the inquiry based learning that promotes the active participation of the trainees.

How to cite: Ginoudi, A.: Teachers training on climate change, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-12286, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-12286, 2023.

Educational seismology projects all over the world allow schools to detect signals from large earthquakes happening anywhere in the world. It starts from the natural interest and fascination for the destructive power of earthquakes. Still, the experiment quickly became much more, from simple information to exposing fundamental concepts tested by practical experiments. In the framework of the Romanian Educational Seismic Network, classroom activities that enable students to learn about some basic science concepts using seismology and earthquakes as a unifying theme have been developed in the last decade. Students are guided to use concepts such as energy transfer, wave properties, and resonance to understand elementary models of earthquakes' causes and effects. From 2022, a new Erasmus Project adds one more piece to the framework, together with a truly regional approach - SEISMOLAB - Creating School Seismology Labs For the Development of Students’. One of the aims of the project is to bring together seismologists, pedagogues, curriculum developers, local authorities, advanced educational developers, and schools to join forces during the implementation and co-design, develop and validate an innovative professional development program for supporting the in-service training of teachers on topics related, but not limited to seismology education. Thus, apart from Seismology, participants will be familiarised with the open schooling approach that provides a powerful framework to engage, discuss and explore how schools can facilitate open, more effective, and efficient co-design, co-creation, and use of educational content tools and services for personalised science learning and teaching and citizens science.

In Romania, the project will be piloted in ten secondary and high schools where SEISMO-labs will be developed based on a framework for organising School Development Labs of Students’ Competences and a set of educational scenarios (SEISMO-Labs demonstrators). A SEISMO-Lab Toolkit and a teacher training program will prepare teachers to implement SEISMO-Labs in their schools, receiving training on the approach and the pedagogical methodologies. An evaluation methodology will be designed for mapping and monitoring the impact and effectiveness, both quantitatively and qualitatively, at the student, teacher, and school/institution level of the SEISMO-Labs.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work was done in the framework of the project “Seismo-Lab” which has been funded with support from the European Commission under the Erasmus+ programme (Grant agreement number 2021-1-EL01-KA220-SCH-000032578).

How to cite: Simionescu, C., Tataru, D., Nastase, E., Necula, E., Vanciu Rau, A., and Zaharia, B.: Creating School Seismology Labs For the Development of Students’, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-12868, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-12868, 2023.

In 2018 the European Geoscience Union Committee on Education launched the Geoscience Education Field Officer (GEFO) programme to establish a network of teacher trainers to improve the teaching of Geoscience in European countries and beyond by means of hands-on workshops, based on the experience and resources developed by the Earth Science Education Unit at Keele University (UK).

The first GEFOs (from France, India, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, and Spain) were selected, trained in April 2019 in Vienna and, after setting up the equipment for running practical labs and translating the related worksheets from the Earthlearningidea repository (www.earthlearningidea.com), began to run workshops for teachers in their respective countries.

 Between May 2019-May 2022, GEFOs ran 29 face-to-face workshops in five countries, with 503 attending teachers from primary to higher secondary school, and six presentations at teachers’ conferences.

More workshops were planned when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, leading the governments to close the schools and suspend all activities in attendance.

GEFOs had to stop running face-to-face workshops, but continued to meet online, exploiting the forced interruption for reflecting on past activities, and switched to online teaching, giving 27 webinars attended by 609 teachers, including one for the National Organization of Science Teachers and Educators (Philippines), one for the International Earth Science Olympiad 2021, one for the Experiment Share - Earth Day Eve and two for the virtual EGU GIFT (Geosciences Information For Teachers) 2021 and 2022.

Meanwhile, GEFOs published two papers on the assessment of the first year of the GEFO programme (Correia et al., 2020; Realdon et al., 2020), one regarding the activity in Portugal (Correia, et al., 2021), an educational article in a teachers’ journal (Realdon et al., 2021), and four abstracts in national and international teacher’s conferences.

All the workshops in attendance were assessed by means of the same evaluation questionnaire, administered in each country’s language. Despite the difficulties and constraints met since 2019, the results offered an encouraging picture of the workshops’ outcomes in all the involved countries, with very high appreciation from the teachers and useful suggestions for the future development of the GEFO programme.

References:

Correia G.P., Pereira, H. & King, C. (2021). O Geoscience Education Field Officer, Revista Ciência Elementar, V9(3): 056. DOI http://doi.org/10.24927/rce2021.056

Correia G., Realdon G., Coupechoux G., Juan X., Baskar R., Burgeoini Y. & King C. (2020) - Geoscience Education Field Officer international programme: The first year of activity (May 2019 – April 2020). ASE International, 10, 11-21. ISSN: 2515-110X

Realdon G., Coupechoux G., Correia G.P., Juan X., Baskar R., Bourgeoini Y. & King C. (2020) - EGU (European Geosciences Union) Education Field Officer programme: teachers’ appreciation, perceptions and needs. European Geologist Journal, 50, 10-14. ISSN: 1028 - 267X. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4311369 

Realdon G., Correia G.P., Juan X., Coupechoux G., Baskar R., Bourgeoini Y. & King, C. (2021) - Watery world – hands- on experiments from Earthlearningidea. Science in School, 54. ISSN 1818-0361 https://www.scienceinschool.org/article/2021/watery-world-hands-on-experiments/

How to cite: Realdon, G., Juan, X., Coupechoux, G., and Correia, G.: 2019-2022 - EGU Geoscience Education Field Officer Programme across the COVID-19 pandemic, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-14701, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-14701, 2023.

The main goal of this project is to increase students' interest in studying Geology and to show the relevance of geological systems in everyday life. Thus, its implementation is expected to contribute to arouse curiosity about the natural world and motivate for scientific learning, in a non-formal education environment that complements the formal classroom approach.

A ballasted railway is composed of the substructure and the superstructure, the latter consisting of elements such as rails, sleepers and fasteners and also ballast. The substructure has as its constituent elements the sub-ballast, the track bed and the foundation. Ballasted track is the construction process with which we associate the railway, i.e. rails laid on sleepers and coarse granular material. Ballasted track can be differentiated according to the type of track construction. The sleepers can be made of wood, concrete or even metal. Ballast is a granular material resulting from the crushing of highly resistant rock material. Its function is to support and distribute the loads coming from superior elements, to drain water, to absorb vibrations and to oppose transversal and longitudinal displacements of the track. The ballasts must present high resistance, particularly to impact and wear, and must have a high durability, these characteristics are found in igneous rocks such as the healthy granites, in which one of the main minerals is quartz, this mineral has a higher resistance to chemical and mechanical changes than the generality of the minerals found in rocks.

In this work, the students selected three stretches of the railway track of the city were selected based on a visual analysis of the rocky elements that composed these stretches: stretch 1 at the railway station, near the passenger boardings and alightings, on line 9; stretch 2-an area of the line only used for changing the direction of the compositions; stretch 3-an area north of line 9, used for the circulation of trains. The existing rocks in each section were collected and identified, the levels of contamination and deterioration of the materials were analysed and the results were discussed in the classroom.

How to cite: Azevedo, M. and Fradique, J.: ROLL IN STONES How to get students excited about studying rocks, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-16980, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-16980, 2023.

Agenda 2030 Obiettivo 4 : Istruzione equa

NAOseuM - NAO a bridge between past and future- NAO Challenge 2022

The Nao Challenge is an educational contest for high school students organized for the first time in Italy in 2015 by Scuola di Robotica (the School of Robotics) in collaboration with SoftBank Robotics and the Italian company CampuStore.

The aim of the competition is to offer high school students the change to work and program a humanoid robot to be used in plausible and real-like situations.

Scwe are convinced that education and culture in all the subjects, STEM and Arts, technoscience and humanities, are important to prepare future generations for the challenges that the current technological revolution. This challenge requires that students that the students employ all their skills, techno scientific, artistic, social:

The competition  are divided into two categories for the semi-finals: those who own the robot Nao and those who do not. We have NAO, but it is possible use the NAO simulation software.

The theme for this edition was the protection and promotion of cultural heritage.

The project named "NAOseum", worked in close collaboration with the Archaeological Museum of Alghero "MUSA".

The project participated in the NAO Challenge 22, passed all the preselections representing Sardinia in the national robotics competition, for the first time ever since its establishment.

He also received thanks from the councilor for public education of the municipality of Alghero.

The objectives are:

Raise awareness among the youth population to discover the history of their territory by making them curious with the use of humanoid robotics;

Increase the influx of the now disinterested population into museums thanks to the help of NAO;

Develop a robot-human interaction that does not create a detachment between the two, but instead brings them closer;

Highlight the gap between the ancient and the modern and demonstrate how they can instead be united to create something beautiful and useful for society;

Intriguing the local population, and also those who come from outside, to the characteristics and curiosities that not all of them, they know about the unique Nuragic civilization of its kind.

Website or Social Links https://linktr.ee/NAO_seum

Video https://youtu.be/28ubyZSujE

How to cite: Cossu, C. and Falchi, S.: NAOseuM - NAO a bridge between past and future-Challenges in STEAM Education, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-2119, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-2119, 2023.

Astronomy or earth science education stays within classroom walls. The universe laboratory is very large. In this study, projects and activities that will enable teachers to carry their students to out-of-school learning environments and enable them to develop cooperation among themselves are presented. We have prepared activities that will enable academicians who teach in the field of earth sciences and astronomy at universities to meet with teachers. These include 5 Science fairs, 3 Nature and Science Schools, 6 astronomy seminars and numerous workshops and sky observing fests. Our Astronomy seminar includes a 3-day training activity conducted by academicians working in the field of Astrophysics, science education and leading teachers in their fields. These educational activities were carried out with the support of local municipalities. It was paid attention to the accommodation of the teachers in the same place and social activities were given importance. The aim is not only for teachers to have scientific knowledge and use it in the classroom, but also to develop collaborations. Teachers and academics developed new studies together. In the field of light pollution, the activity “Disappearing Darkness: The Dirty Side of Light” is an example. Light pollution measurements were made with the SQM device once in each school. In schools, teachers and students contributed to a real scientific study. Thus, data flow was provided to the light pollution map of Turkey. The themes of 3 of the science festivals are expert seminars on astronomy and technology, workshops, demonstration experiments, and fun applications. After all the work, social media networks and organizations began where teachers would share the activities. Event activity announcements were shared on these social media accounts. The last two of the science festivals were held in the field of STEM education approach, with the contribution of all teachers living in the region. On the other hand, a village school, which was found to be not interested in STEM professions, was invited. These students first met online, then face-to-face with men and women working in STEM professions on the day of the festival. An increase was observed in students' interest in professions. In addition to the excavations in the science center garden, an open-air rock museum was created by the municipality and teachers and students can still visit this museum. We participated in the activity organized by an academician with academicians at his university 4 times. Here we examined places such as the Geopark area and the canyon. We collected rocks at every point. We brought our rocks to our schools and made examinations with our students. Since we participated from different cities, we extended the education to our colleagues and students in our own regions. We gave trainings on the hardness of the rocks we learned, the geological times of the universe, the effect of landforms on vegetation. We organized field trips in our provinces. During these trips, we enabled our students to collect rock samples and create their own collections.  

How to cite: Fizan Sasa, A., Özgül, D., Kırık, O., Gül, S., Yetiş, K., Guzel, U., Aydın Altınışık, F. S., Açıkgöz, A., Kırık, C., and Dinç, H.: From Class to Universe, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-6281, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-6281, 2023.