THE GROUNDWATER PROJECT AS AN INNOVATION IN GEOSCIENCE EDUCATION

The Groundwater Project (gw-project.org) is a philanthropic charitable NGO with an international focus to publish books and other educational materials of synthesized knowledge prepared by expert volunteers. The materials are published on the GW-P website for free downloading by many levels of readership including translations into several languages. So far 34 original textbooks have been issued on the website, 30 more are coming soon and 150 more are in preparation. There are downloads in 174 countries. Beyond the creation of textbooks to cover “all things groundwater”, this Project is focused on innovation in groundwater education from elementary school age through graduate level. It seeks to develop educational materials to advance groundwater learning in new ways with emphasis on spatial thinking skills for conceptualizing outcomes of processes that combine to govern groundwater systems such as flow, hydrogeochemistry and contamination transport and fate, all within a geological framework.

The goal is to create shared educational materials that stimulate experiential self-learning. For example, the novice learner needs to be connected to groundwater in the field and for this, there are many opportunities because the water table is everywhere beneath us, easily accessible in most areas if learners are guided where to dig with a trowel, or shovel. This can be done near wetlands, on a beach or at the edge of a stream or river. When explained to students, the water table is just a line on a drawing or picture but with a small but well-designed effort it comes alive as a learning exercise. There are manual low-cost drilling methods that students can use to go deeper to learn much more about groundwater concepts. There is abundant open access software for advanced students to conduct simulations for understanding how the various processes and parameter choices generate outcomes. The Project aims to make globally accessible resources to support educators.