GEOLOGICAL „MUSEUM“ OF SCHOOL SURROUNDINGS: TO HELP TEACHERS

Abstract

Year 2012 in Lithuania is announced as the Year of Museums, nevertheless the num-ber of museums and educational programs dedicated to Natural Sciences did not increase. Geosciences are very significant part of the whole complex of Natural Sciences. How-ever, geological disciplines are not included in Education Programm of Secondary Schools, therefore Museums of Geology became very important. Lithuania can not brag about a big number of geological museums, and most of them are not close enough for a class trip. Such luxury is only available mainly for schools in Vilni-us. Although, during recent years more and more geological knowledge is available at regional parks new information centers (Gražutės, Sartų, Nemuno kilpų, Ventos, etc.). It is convenient to nearby schools. But what about the rest? The idea of this article is to show, that a geological „museum“ can be found in schools surrounding environment: school yard, close by river slope, dug out quarry, by a water spring or a hill. Specific examples are presented how an unregistered user, visiting Lithuanian Geologi-cal Survey internet site (www.lgt.lt), can find enough information about his schools’ surround-ings geological structure (on the surface and underground), protected geological object (ge-otops), interesting outcrops, probable pollution sources, mineral resources, etc. Key words: museum of geology, Vilnius University, nonformal natural science educa-tion, geology, education, museum, teacher.