NATURE LAB – A NEW LECTURE HALL FOR GEOGRAPHY?

Abstract

This paper discusses nature labs as new lecture halls for Geography on the example of the nature lab Altenberg. Therefore, innovative and practice-oriented methods of applied teaching are illuminated on the example of the lab’s co-learning approach and the geomorphological educational trail, as an instrument of environmental education. (section2). An evaluation of the nature lab’s impacts on the communal development is provided in section 3 and factors of success for installing a nature lab are detected, by evaluating lessons learned from 2013 till today. Altogether, the paper on hand can help to understand the focal points for running a nature lab. It also shows how new teaching methods in Geography can be applied in an innovative and practice-oriented way.

Keywords

• nature lab
• co-learning
• applied teaching
• environmental education
• educational trail