Abstract:

The foundation of a nature park adjacent to the University of Siegen (in Germany) lead to the question how cooperation between nature parks and schools could be enhanced to support scientific education and which topics could be particularly suitable.

Nature parks encompass large natural and cultural landscapes which combine the protection and at the same time the sustainable use of these landscapes and are also assigned to implement environmental education. Although numerous collaborations between schools and nature parks already exist, but a study of the status quo of school related educational opportunities of all nature parks in Germany reveals a limited focus. Most of the educational programs concentrate on the areas of biology, geology, and history and on younger children in primary school (cf. Schäfer & Gröger 2017). There is therefore a huge potential for developing cooperation projects with secondary schools and with regard to further school subjects.

The aim of the present study therefore was to elicit suitable topics to create an empirical foundation for the specific development of educational programs in nature parks. In order to find suitable topics and to narrow down the range of subjects, the study focuses on the interdisciplinary scientific education in grade five and six (11-12 years old).

For this purpose, a two-step Dephi-Study was carried out with experts in the fields of didactics, schools and nature parks. In the first qualitative oriented step, eight main categories could be identified through qualitative content analysis (cf. Schäfer & Gröger 2017). In the second step, one of these categories, “human – nature – landscape”, was examined closer in a quantitative survey. This category is especially interesting because it connects social and natural sciences and can be allocated to the concept Socio-Scientific-Issues (cf. Zeidler & Nichols 2009). Out of the mentioned subcategories, “human and landscape”, “sustainability, environment and nature conservation” and “agriculture” got the best ratings (cf. Schäfer, Gröger & Janssen 2018).

Starting from these, a practical example will be presented as to how topics for extracurricular education with nature parks can be elaborated.

References:
[1] Schäfer, B. & Gröger, M. (2017): Chemische und physikalische Inhalte im Bildungsangebot von Naturparks. In: Maurer, C. (Hrsg.): Implementation fachdidaktischer Innovation im Spiegel von Forschung und Praxis, Universität Regensburg, 628-631.
[2] Schäfer, B., Gröger, M. & Janssen, M. (2018): Außerschulisches Lernen im Rahmen des fächerübergreifenden naturwissenschaftlichen Anfangsunterrichtes in Kooperation mit Naturparken. In: Flügel, A., Gröger, M. & Wiesemann, J.: Orte und Räume der Generationenvermittlung – außerschulisches Lernen von Kindern, Universi-Verlag, Siegen, in print.
[3] Zeidler, D. L. & Nichols, B. H. (2009): Socioscientific Issues: Theory and Practice. In: Journal of Elementary Science Education 21 (2), 49–58.

Keywords:

STEM, nature parks.