engleski

A working model of karst as an educational tool

In 2008 members of the Dubrava Cultural Centre Eco Club in Zagreb, mostly third-grade pupils of the Antun Mihanović elementary school, participated at the Science Week with the presentation “Where does the water in karst flow?”. With the help of their teacher, a professional geologist and several graduate students of geology, the pupils used clay, styrofoam and plaster of Paris to make two hydrogeologically active models of karst terrain and the underground. The models represented two geomorphologically different parts of the Velebit Mt. range in Croatia, milder Northern Velebit Mt. and rougher Southern Velebit Mt., respectively. Both models had underground hydrological network of tunnels and caverns made in clay with plastic tubes and bags, accompanied by karst springs, swallow-holes, estavelas, lakes and streams. These were designed in the very process of building the model, and the pupils designed the style of water percolation. After the hydrological network was designed, it was carefully covered by gypsum- impregnated canvas and "limestone" supestructure was built of styrofoam. The surface was modelled again in qypsum. During demostration the pupils sprayed the model with water, mimicking the rain, which eventually surfaced in karst springs, estavelas, or sank in sinkholes to reappear in lower springs and fill the lakes. The idea was threefold: * to motivate children to explore and learn about karst through their own (interdisciplinary)research, * to do a hands-on activity using various materials, tools and techniqes in order to produce a working (re)usable model/educational tool * to prepare material for the upcoming Science Week (an experiment, live and slideshow presentations). The results were more than satisfactory! Children successfully demostrated their karst models before the public dozens of times, and explained to the audience everything they learned. The models themselves are very robust, and are still occassionally being used for in-school demonstrations.

karst; relief; hydrogeology; education

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