The Educational Role of Geology Olympiads in Spain: Promotion of Geological Heritage and Geoconservation in Youngsters
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The Educational Role of Geology Olympiads in Spain: Promotion of Geological Heritage and Geoconservation in Youngsters Omid Fesharaki 1
&
Amelia Calonge 2 & María Dolores López Carrillo 2
Received: 15 November 2019 / Accepted: 18 November 2020 # The European Association for Conservation of the Geological Heritage 2020
Abstract The aim of this study is to analyse the evolution of and educational interest in the Spanish Geology Olympiads after ten editions of this initiative. The primary purpose of Geology Olympiads is to encourage students to acquire earth sciences knowledge by highlighting its importance in the current world. Geology Olympiads have been one of the initiatives to encourage a slow but steady recovery in the number of students interested in pursuing earth sciences degrees. In addition, this initiative puts university teachers and students in contact with those from pre-university levels, improving the exchange of ideas and teaching materials related to geology. This also motivates students and promotes the value of geological heritage and the importance of geodiversity conservation. The results show an increase in the number of participants; more male than female students gained access to the national phase, with boys being those who occupied the winning positions. In this way, in all editions, the highest score in the individual phase was obtained by one of the participating male students. Males also always obtain an average score higher than the average obtained by participating females. Other results show a greater number of questions about the internal and external geodynamics of the planet in the tests as well as a progressive increase in focus on issues related to geological heritage and regional geology in group tests. Finally, the total average has been less than 50 points in only one edition, so it can be assumed that, in general, the knowledge of the participants is acceptable. Keywords Earth sciences . Education . Gender differences . Geodiversity . Geology . Secondary school
Introduction and Background During the last two decades, there has been a steady decrease in the number of students who have access to university studies in the scientific field, especially studies related to earth sciences. This situation does not exclusively affect Spain but has also been observed in other European Union countries as well (Manduca 2007; Moral and Olías 2012; Fermeli et al.
* Omid Fesharaki [email protected] Amelia Calonge [email protected] María Dolores López Carrillo [email protected] 1
Geodynamics, Stratigraphy and Palaeontology Department, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
2
Geology, Geography and Environment Department, Alcalá University, Madrid, Spain
2015). It has been stated that many primary and secondary school students have difficulty understanding earth dynamics due to the lack of satisfactory incorporation of geological concepts in these education levels (Rodríguez-Pérez et al. 2015; Escorihuela 2017; general data about geoscience education a
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