EXPLORING THE AFFECTIVE DIMENSIONS OF GEOSCIENCE INTERPRETATION IN NATIONAL PARKS AND MONUMENTS

Of the 392 units administered by the National Park Service (NPS), at least 273 include significant geologic resources among their main attractions. Yet many National Park interpreters struggle to present the geologic history of their parks to the public in a meaningful and relevant way. Interpretive theory states that programs should provide both intellection and emotional opportunities for visitors to connect with natural resources. As a scientific discipline, geology lends itself naturally to intellectual connections, but the emotional domain presents greater challenges. Workers pursuing sense of place research have demonstrated that academic courses designed with the affective dimensions of learning in mind can produce both greater content understanding and stewardship attitudes in participants. With the aim to enrich the experiences of National Park visitors and guide NPS interpreters, a mixed methods study was designed to generate grounded theory on the subject of geologic resource interpretation, with particular focus on its emotional dimensions. At 12 different National Parks and Monuments, two to five geology-themed interpretive programs were filmed and analyzed for intellectual and emotional connection opportunities, while visitors were administered pre- and post-questionnaires, or interviewed as members of focus groups. The resultant qualitative and quantitative data provide insight into the geoscience experience of visitors on public lands, and offer a palette of best practices for interpreters.