Developing Geographic Skills through Experiments: Implementing Experiments in Geography Classroom through GeoBoxes

Abstract

Experiments are an important way of working in the geography classroom. They promote and require numerous geographic skills. At the same time, experiments are only used comparatively rarely in geography lessons in Germany. In order to increase the frequency of experiments in the classroom and to better exploit their potential, GeoBoxes have been developed. These can be borrowed by teachers and contain all materials and worksheets. In the article the steps of the development of the GeoBox are presented. In addition, the concept, which aims in particular at a cognitive activation of the students during experimentation, is presented. Accompanying research provides first indications that the GeoBox seems to be suitable to arouse especially the situational interest of the students.