GUIDED SHOW CAVE TOURS AS VENUE FOR NONFORMAL KARST EDUCATION IN YOUTH

Karst landscapes are regions with geological features such as caves created by the dissolution of predominantly carbonate bedrock. The aesthetic, historical, and ecological significance of karst areas results in human modification of some caves to allow public visitation as ‘show caves.’ While show caves can experience higher levels of anthropogenic degradation than non-commercialized caves, they can also be integral to regional economic, societal, and environmental wellbeing. Moreover, show caves serve as primary platforms for disseminating karst education. School fieldtrips to show caves offer a unique setting for assessing karst-related environmental learning outcomes in children through a nonformal education setting. By thematically coding educational tours and semi-structured interviews, and comparing results from 560 pre- and post-assessments, this study found students responded 8.44% more correctly on karst-related assessments immediately following an educational tour compared to pre-tour assessments. Thematic coding of semi-structured interviews with tour guides showed ‘karst’ only comprised 0.77% and ‘management’ comprised 11.34% of total themes when discussing educational tours. Teacher semi-structured interviews further indicated that formal karst education improves learning outcomes from educational show cave tours in students. Finally, this study produced recommendations for show cave managers and guide operators to further improve cave and karst nonformal educational experiences and outcomes in youth.