The Power of Visualization in Learning Geoscience. Understanding Climate Change Seeking and Comparing Images

Gaetano Caputo (a), Alessia Cicconi (b,c) & Paola Giunta (d)
(a) I.C. "F.Palizzi", Casoria (Na). (b) Liceo Classico "F. Stabili-E. Trebbiani", Ascoli Piceno (AP). (c) School of Science and Technology, Geology Division, Camerino University. (d) Istituto Istruzione Superiore "E. Medi" di Leonforte (En). Corresponding author e-mail: caputo.geo@gmail.com

Geoscience is, among the other scientific disciplines, the one where spatial thinking is an important skill for a deeper understanding of the topic. Furthermore, the last Ministry of Education recommendations about teaching science highlight the role of technological tools in the teaching activity but few studies have been conducted, so far, in Italy in this field of the education. In this study, we describe our attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of visualization tools in learning a geoscience topic such as the climate change, in a first cycle secondary school class. We created a guided educational activity that should enhance students' knowledge about climate change using visualization tools from the simple images to the use of the Google Earth software. We addressed this exploratory study with a qualitative approach and used, as methods, surveys, observation rubrics and content analyses.

Google Earth, learning geoscience, teaching geoscience, visualization.