Overview

Welcome to the EGU’s Education section!

Inspiring, updating and supporting geoscience teachers and educators

The Education Committee (EC) supports EGU’s mission to develop ‘the next generation of geoscientists through the provision of world-class education, training and resources to secondary school teachers, university geoscience educators and to early career scientists’.

The Education Committee main objective is to develop activities and resources to support geoscience education in Europe and across the world.

In support of EGU’s ‘pursuit of excellence’ mission, Education Committee is offering each year an action plan for teachers with the strapline of ‘Inspiring, updating and supporting geoscience teachers and educators’ as a means of enhancing geoscience education across Europe and beyond.

Geoscience educators across Europe (and the world) have been well supported for more than 20 years by EGU GIFT conferences and workshops. The main objective of the GIFT workshops is to spread first-hand scientific information to science teachers of primary and secondary schools, significantly shortening the time between discovery and textbook, and to provide the teachers with material that can be directly transported to the classroom or on the field. In addition, the full immersion of science teachers in a truly scientific context and the direct contact with world leading geoscientists are expected to stimulate curiosity towards scientific research that the teachers then transmit to their pupils.

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Since 2019/20 pilot initiative, the EGU appointed, trained and provided expenses for EGU geoscience field officers (GEFO) in eleven European countries, who provide professional development to teachers of science and geography at regional and national conferences for science or geography teachers. This initiative should be extended to more European countries in future years. Each field officer is trained in presenting hands-on workshops targeted at their own curricula (geoscience, geography). The work of the Field Officers, at national level, is closely linked to the professional associations and associations of geoscience teachers. The EC therefore seeks to establish Europe-wide co-ordination with all these national organisations through its young network of EGU geoscience field officers.

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Teachers of geoscience in Tertiary Education (Higher Education) who have strong geoscience backgrounds but who have usually received little professional development in geoscience education. EC seeks to develop actions to help promote and improve geoscience education in the early years of university. These actions take the form of support for the production of teaching resources and the organisation of seminars on education. The EC is particularly attentive to Early Carreers Scienstists (ECS).

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Each year, EC selects Geoscience Education Initiatives organised in Europe and beyond. By supporting these selected initiatives, EC helps to promote geoscience education through numerous pilot projects. These initiatives can include field schools for teachers, a cycle of conferences for educators, material kits for schools, help to participate in International Geoscience event. Keep in touch with Education Committee if you want to propose a Geoscience Education Event for the next year. Calls for Geoscience Education event submissions are regularly posted online.

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Here you can find more information about further EGU's educational initiatives, including:

• Planet Press – geoscientific news for children
• Educational resources – teaching resources in the geosciences
• Geolocations database – geological locations across Europe