A FIELD CLASS FOR GEOLOGY STUDENTS IN COIMBRA, CENTRAL PORTUGAL

The students of the Geology Course have field classes and do field work. Many studies present results about field classes with school students and they recognise the advantages of creating a precise plan for the field class. This study was a qualitative research based on the hypothesis: the participants agree with the advantages of a field class organized in three units with a precise design. The objectives of this study were to do a field class, in Coimbra, with a precise plan with three units: before, during and after the field class and for the participants and two observers to evaluate the class.

The methodology was:
1) to define the objectives of the field class;
2) to study the geology of the area;
3) to do field work with observation, interpretations and making pictures and films;
4) to make the teaching materials including presentations, a field book, posters and resources with revision questions; 5) to do the field class with 30 university students of Geology;
6) to evaluate the class and the learning materials.

The participants wrote five questions about the field class and the materials obtained were transformed into data by content analysis. The categories were advantages and insubstantialities. The results revealed that the participants agree with the advantages of a field class organized in three units with a precise design.