Milestone for ground-breaking education project

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A ground-breaking project to inspire young learners across the country has reached a major milestone.

Today (15 November 2016) GeoBus, an educational outreach project developed and run by the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of St Andrews, hosted its 50,000th pupil when the project visited Perth Academy.

GeoBus was launched in January 2012 with the aim of bringing Earth science into schools in the form of workshops based on active learning and leading field excursions. Earth science builds on all the pure science subjects and concepts in physics, chemistry and biology which are easily conveyed through Earth science topics.

The project visits schools four times a week during term time, in every educational authority across Scotland, and involves around 10,000 to 11,000 pupils in about 100 schools every year.

Its aim is to inspire young learners by providing resources that are not readily available to educators and to provide a bridge between industry, higher education, research councils, and schools to highlight career opportunities in geology, specifically, and Earth sciences, as well as science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects generally.

All of the GeoBus teaching packages are based around hands-on and interactive learning, and all the resources involved in the activities are brought to the school.

GeoBus director Ruth Robinson, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of St Andrews, said: “GeoBus fills a gap in Curriculum for Excellence. Earth science is not included sufficiently in the secondary school curriculum, even though many of society’s resources, energy problems and climate change issues are addressed in the subject called Earth science. Our workshops bring all the resources and expertise to the school and build up teacher confidence in the subject.”

GeoBus Education Coordinator Kathryn Roper said: “Geology is the story of the Earth and its adventures through time. It is for everyone. The GeoBus project aims to inspire and encourage all pupils and teachers into a better understanding of our planet.”

Notes to news editors

Photo caption (from left): Kathryn Roper, Jen Brooke (GeoBus Education Officer), Sarah Paterson, Tegan Carswell, Jonathan Cheong, Louise Fraser, Iona Fleming, Scott Lennox, Dr Ruth Robinson and Sean Doherty (GeoBus Assistant); holding the banner are Ross Ogilvie and Ewen Kilpatrick.

The GeoBus project is currently funded by Shell, Maersk, Premier Oil, and the Natural Environment Research Council.

More information about Geobus can be found on the project’s website.

Issued by the University of St Andrews Communications Office, contactable on 01334 467310 or 462530 or [email protected].