Conference Agenda

Geoscience learning in outdoor, field-based settings can provide students with a deep understanding of the core practices of geoscientists. Although field-based learning has been studied at different educational levels, most research has been at the tertiary level, and few studies have considered field learning progressions across grade levels. This research is a synthesis of our team's decade of research on field experiences of students and preservice teachers. The goal was to identify the characteristics of successful field learning to determine how educators can support learners of different ages as they progress into and through tertiary education. Students ages 10-25 participated in environmental geoscience experiences of varyng types, including geocaching, field photography, citizen science, community-engaged research, and field excursions. The findings support the conclusions of other researchers that observation, data collection, and analysis are appropriate for primary grade levels, but primary level teachers need experience in the field, ideally during their training, to gain confidence taking their own students into the field. For primary education, after a training program with scientists, teachers were comfortable adopting field photography as a method to increase student observational skills. Further, primary and secondary students were able to complete research projects on geoscience hazards that required generating a hypothesis, collecting and analyzing data, and presenting their interpretations to a public audience. This synthesis both confirms the importance of field-based learning in sparking student interest in science and provides insights on how the geoscience community can support teachers to design effective field learning.

Field trips are essential for Earth Systems Education. Students must be given the chance to draw conclusions from their own observations in the field. Nevertheless, the practice of removing students from the conventional educational setting is associated with a number of significant challenges. These include additional costs for the families, students missing out on classes, schools having to substitute the participating teachers and finding suitable and safe locations of educational geological value.

A total of 29 middle school students were taken to the vicinity of the Harz. The topics were related to sedimentary and igneous rocks (e.g. dinosaur tracks, mining history, fossil coral reef, regional geology). We conducted a simple practical pre- and posttest on two typical rock samples in the classroom and asked them - on the way home after the field trip - to rate the field trip as a whole, and their interest in geoscience before and after the field trip. Finally, they had to state with a clear “yes” or “no” whether they would recommend a field trip as part of future geoscience classes and explain their opinion.

A clear majority of 27 students (93%) recommend field trips as an obligatory part of geoscience courses. They stated that they had gained knowledge, enjoyed the practical learning setting and felt it was a unique experience. The fieldwork programme, the designed exercises and evidence on the extent to which middle school students are able to draw conclusions from their own observations will be presented.

The promotion of STEM education, known as MINT in German-speaking countries, is widely acknowledged as essential for addressing future scientific challenges and enhancing quality of life. The current scarcity of skilled professionals and declining student interest in scientific fields underscore the urgent need for sustained investment in STEM education, both within schools and through extracurricular initiatives.

The Thuringia Foundation for Technology, Innovation, and Research (STIFT) has taken a leading role in advancing STEM offerings since 2020 through the "MINT-Thüringen" initiative. This collaborative effort involves schools, universities, research institutes, and companies to foster STEM interest from kindergarten to secondary education. Seven STEM regions across Thuringia offer tailored programs, with extracurricular research centres (Schülerforschungszentren, SFZs) serving as the organizational backbone.

In northern Thuringia, initiatives often overlook geosciences, despite the region being rich in geological heritage. To address this gap, the SFZ Nordhausen, based at the University of Applied Sciences of Nordhausen, has set a new goal, namely to raise awareness of local geology and resources. This includes the following initiatives: a pilot school working group with the Kyffhäuser Geopark, a summer camp in collaboration with the South Harz Nature Park and the Youth Art School Nordhausen, and teacher training sessions on mineral resources during the 9^th Thuringian edition of "School MIT Science".

In this meeting, I report on the evaluation of those initial efforts to expand geoscience outreach and cultivate a deeper understanding of the region's geological significance among students and educators with alternative forms of cooperation in schools and extracurricular contexts.

An important goal of education for sustainable development (ESD) is the ability to analyse conflicting goals in the implementation of various SDGs and, based on this, to formulate judgements and negotiate solutions (UNESCO 2021). The extraction and use of geological resources often leads to such conflicting goals. School and extracurricular educational contexts relating to the extraction of raw materials therefore offer great potential for promoting this ESD goal.

The presentation will provide an overview of the following questions relating to the teaching of such raw material conflicts:

1) What are the prerequisites on the part of the learners?

2) What methodological approaches exist for teaching such conflicts in school and extracurricular educational work? And: how can these approaches be categorized?

3) How are the different didactic approaches to teaching such raw material conflicts justified?

4) What empirical findings are available on the implementation of such approaches?

A special focus is placed on the differentiation and reflection of factual and ethical aspects within such conflicts, as it is laid out in biology and geography educational approaches to "double complexity" (Bögeholz & Barkmann, 2005; Meyer & Felzmann, 2011) and to evaluation competence or as it is considered in the approach of geoethics (Peppoloni & Di Capua, 2015) and its didactic further development (Vasconcelos & Orion, 2021).

The umbrella organization of the geosciences DVGeo has been organizing the German Geoscience Olympiad for school students since 2023. 170 students took part in the Online test and 20 were selected for the second round. This nationwide competition builds on school knowledge from geography as well as chemistry, physics and biology and provides deeper insights into the geosciences. The German Earth Science Olympiad is also the national selection competition for the established International Earth Science Olympiad (IESO).The German Earth Science Olympiad was conceived by representatives of the DVGeo's supporting organizations from the fields of geology, geophysics, palaeontology and mineralogy. The aim is to arouse pupils' interest in the geosciences. Students from 9th grade to Q1 (qualification year 1 for the Abitur) can participate. We will present task formats of the first edition and summarize students‘ results in order to discuss possible guidelines for future editions.