Extracurricular learning locations present themselves at the “didacta”

The Geoparks in Germany – Geology to touch

Germany’s geoparks united at one stand – at the didacta educational fair, the actors promote their extracurricular learning locations, which make billions of years of earth history tangible.

Volcanic rock in your hands, the spray of the geyser on the face, with helmet and lighting through the mine, mountains for discovering minerals and fossils – in the geoparks in Germany, lessons are possible directly at the place of the event. Discovering, learning and amazed – cross-curricular teaching enables not only topics from the field of geography and history, but also STEM subjects mathematics, computer science, science and technology to take up at the extracurricular learning places. Accompanied by geologists, geoscientists or trained tour guides, informative and exciting lessons are offered at learning locations outside the classroom – in nature or in the museums and information centres of the geoparks.
Geoparks are specially designated rooms, the geological equipment of which can be experienced in a special way for the visitors. Geoparks have interesting and protected geological sites, so-called “geotopes”, which offer fascinating insights into the geological origin of the respective landscape as a window into the history of the earth. The use of geopotential by humans in the form of mining, agriculture and industry is always included – in history and the present. Geoparks build bridges to archaeology and cultural and economic history. They show how to learn from the past for the future. They illustrate what climate change and species extinction in the past has meant for the dominant species. Each federal state has at least one GeoPark, except for the city states. In total, there are already 23 geoparks in Germany, with a variety of extracurricular learning places.

At didacta in Stuttgart, the German Geoparks will present themselves together for the first time from 24 to 28 March. The didacta – the educational fair takes place every year in Stuttgart, Cologne or Hanover. As Europe’s largest trade fair, it provides a comprehensive insight into the whole of education, from early childhood education to vocational training and lifelong learning. Visitors to the fair will find the stand of the German Geoparks in Hall 8/D71. Further information on the German Geoparks can be found at: www.geoparks-in-deutschland.de