<p>Application RockCheck (original version KamenCheck in Slovenian) was developed as an e-learning material, which can be used for teaching and learning geological contents in formal and non-formal education. Our aim was to create the teaching aid that will contribute to the improvement and quality of teaching and learning of basic geological contents within natural science subjects. It was created to be used in classrooms, as an additional motivation tool combined with active learning methods, and also in challenges for lessons in nature. Since the application uses the approach of experimental and observational based learning no pre-existing knowledge is needed, and users can determine names of typical rocks only by following the app's instructions.</p><p>The application consists of three main chapters&#160; whose contents are interrelated. The main chapter presents the Rock key where through a simple decision key, by answering the question with yes or no, the user identifies the name of the individual rock. The application enables independent research by observing and experimenting with using simple tools. The other two chapters, Encyclopaedia and School of rock, help the user to enable further learning about rocks in general, about their appearance, formation and usage as well as help to understand geological concepts and procedures. The contents of the chapters are cautiously connected with the links. The last two chapters are a crucial support for planning and teaching the geological contents and present also the good base for preparing active learning challenges. All contents within the application were carefully designed and based on learning objectives of the Slovenian curriculum.</p><p>As an important project upgrade the interactive and experimental workshop was created which provides an insight to use the application as a learning aid. The workshop provides the examples and concepts of how the teachers through experiential learning can teach geology and thus increase the understanding and sustainability of knowledge. In order to actively involve the participants in the learning process, the workshop covers a variety of challenges that are addressed through different teaching methods. Besides, the special interactive learning sheets were created, which were designed with a specific goal and level. We also created a &#160;board game called RockGame. It uses the RockCheck app for solving challenges and answering questions in the game. The main aim of the RockGame is to raise awareness about the topic of raw materials. Trough gamification pupils learn about geologist&#8217;s role in the raw material value chain. We did so by including the connection between minerals, rocks, raw mineral resources and final products in the game.</p><p>The application was made within the student project StoneKey (call "On the creative path to knowledge 2017-2020"). The project involved 9 students of different degrees and study programs, three teaching mentors and a working mentor from the company DigiEd. The project was co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia and the European Union from the European Social Fund. &#160;The application was later upgraded and translated within the EU project RM@Schools 3.0. funded by the European Institute of Innovation and technology.</p>
Applications presenting the content of a specific professional field are more frequently used for educational purposes. Not only that the interactive solutions including multimedia can more effectively transfer knowledge due to their property to offer a content on a demand, but they are also very attractive, they augment user experience, are able to present more spatial and time dependent data and they usually involve multisensory approaches including senses of vision, hearing and touching. In the research the work frame and a design process of the educative app solution for geological purposes is presented. The aim of the app is to interactively determine stones by means to implement geological stone key. The experimental part presents the strategy phase, in which the target groups were defined, their needs were analysed and touching points for the successful networking, sharing and promotion were introduced. Next, app's functionalities and content types were created, based on the specification of professional field of geology. The content was categorised and labelled so that in the context of the whole app's structure required hierarchy and organisation of the content categories were introduced. User interface design began with simple layout sketches and with iterative approach that followed, more interactive prototypes were designed, developed and tested using the wireframes. In the results the final prototype and its design are presented with the evaluation of user-centred design approach that was implemented in the work frame.
Poučevanje geoloških vsebin v osnovni šoli in na splošnih gimnazijah do sedaj še ni bilo sistematično obravnavano. V okviru Skupine za popularizacijo geologije, ki deluje pod okriljem Slovenskega geološkega društva, smo si zastavili cilj, pridobiti vpogled v poučevanje geoloških vsebin v osnovnih šolah in na splošnih gimnazijah. Pri pregledu smo zajeli tudi splošno maturo, saj le-ta predstavlja zaključek srednješolskega izobraževanja. Da bi zagotovili pregled nad poučevanjem geoloških vsebin, smo najprej pregledali predmetne učne načrte ter izpitne kataloge za maturitetne predmete. Pregledali smo tudi veljavne učbenike in maturitetne izpitne pole pri predmetih, kjer se geološke vsebine pojavljajo. Dobljene geološke vsebine smo razvrstili v šest splošnih geoloških vsebinskih sklopov. Vse vsebine so bile vrednotene po Bloomovi taksonomiji, ki na podlagi strukturiranosti omogoča prepoznavanje taksonomske zahtevnosti učnih ciljev in preverjanj znanj. Vrednotili smo tudi medpredmetno povezanost. Ugotovili smo, da se geološke vsebine v osnovni šoli obravnavajo pri obveznih predmetih Družba, Naravoslovje in tehnika, Naravoslovje, Geografija in Biologija ter izbirnem predmetu Okoljska vzgoja, v splošnih gimnazijah pa pri predmetih Geografija in Biologija, kjer se znanje preverja tudi na maturi. Učni cilji in vsebine se večinoma smiselno nadgrajujejo, vendar pa besedila v učbenikih pogosto nezadostno in strokovno pomanjkljivo predstavijo posamezno tematiko. Kar nekaj za družbo pomembnih geoloških tematik je v formalnem izobraževanju izpuščenih. Pri posameznih medpredmetno povezanih sklopih smo podali priporočila za promotorje znanosti, kako prispevati k boljšemu in strokovno pravilnemu razumevanju vsebine sklopa. Predstavitev geologije v učbenikih je nezvezna, strokovno pomanjkljiva in vsebinsko zelo okrnjena. Pričujoča raziskava nam daje izhodišče za začetek umeščanja posodobljenih in združeno predstavljenih geoloških vsebin v formalno izobraževanje.
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