Disseminating Geosciences Through Geosites: The Example Of “Geoscuola” Project In Basilicata

GeoScuola is an educational project aiming to promove Geoscience among students of first degree – secondary school in the Basilicata region (Lucente et al., 2022). The initiative, promoted by ExtraGEO, a spin-off of Basilicata University, in collaboration with official sponsor Shell E&P Italy, has been proposed since 2014 and reached the seventh edition. Today the project involved 20 schools and 3000 students up. The teaching activities, generally carried out between March and May, are divided into 5 frontal lessons and 1 final field trip in to the national and international geosites of Sasso di Castalda (PZ), Castelmezzano (PZ) or Rionero in Vulture (PZ). The teaching program encloses the main topics of Geoscience (origin of solar system, plate tectonics, rocks recognition, volcanoes and earthquake, energy overview and geological heritage) while classroom activities benefits from multimedia tools and advanced technologies. During lectures, laboratory and interactive approaches are adopted, with innovative teaching methods such as cooperative learning, flipped classroom, mind mapping and problem posing. In this paper, we present the experience of 6 GeoScuola’s editions, analyzing methodologies and feedback. We also demonstrate how the school can become a dynamic system, capable of evolving together with the territory and acting for protection, enhancement and promotion of geological heritage.