Weather stones

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The Wetterhorn massif from the direction of Goldern; Cover picture for Ungar (1997)

Wettersteine, sometimes simply called geomorphology , is a teaching piece of didactic art that was developed from 1988 and was first published comprehensively in 1997 by the geographer and grammar school teacher Peter Ungar, who was a student of Hansjörg Dongus '. It is based on template 1 published in 1965. Example: Earth history. or geological history, a course sketch. by didactician Martin Wagenschein , who is said to have been influenced in particular by geologist Hans Cloos .

The didactic piece deals genetically with the topic of geomorphology and in particular follows the discourse between the cataclysmic theory of Georges Cuvier and the actuality principle further developed by Charles Lyell about the periods of mountain formation. Since the pupils should also explore their own geomorphological surroundings in the didactic play, the didactic play therefore has aspects of local history .

The submission of the Wagenschein

Surf cave on the west coast of Sardinia ; Image used in Hungary's didactic play

For his genetic course, Martin Wagenschein suggests showing photographs of scree slopes , rock falls , avalanches , glaciers , moraines , river valleys , waterfalls , surf coasts , deltas, etc., and he assumes that questions of the kind:

"How is this supposed to end? Everything goes to the valley. Will there come a time without mountains? "

would come by itself.

After the aspects of leveling and swamping have been discussed, he genetically wants to answer the counter-questions:

“Are there no opposing forces? Where did the mountains come from? Are they all just islands of erosion? "

to steer. He explicitly suspects that volcanism would be mentioned spontaneously as an important counterforce. If it had now emerged that the volcanoes are a side effect, but not the cause, and rock folds had come into focus, the pupil would, according to his conjecture, come close to Cuvier's catastrophe theory, which he explicitly cites:

"Even from a great distance the eye recognizes the jagged crests and the steep peaks ... the signs of their violent elevation ... The tears, bends and tilts that the oldest layers show leave no doubt that sudden and violent causes are at work Work. "

- Georges Cuvier

Age determinations for rocks, however, as well as the knowledge "about gentle but incessant uplifts or subsidence, like the rise of the Norwegian and the sinking of the German North Sea coast" ultimately led to Lyell's insight,

"That earlier geologists inferred from millennia, where the language of nature points to millions of years ... The researcher comes to the conviction that the effective causes always remain the same."

- Charles Lyell

Which leads to the thesis of a “restless earth” highlighted by the Belgian geologist Roger Gheyselinck in a well-known book title from 1938 .

Wagenschein complains that "the reality of the earth (...) is otherwise no longer present in school" and puts the conclusion at the end of his course:

“Perhaps it can no longer be everywhere; all the more must it be with fundamental insights. And the history of the earth in particular should always be taught genetically. Because even the biological theory of evolution can only acquire the character of reality if the geological time periods have become not only information for us but also an event in us . "

- Martin Wagenschein (1965)

The development of Hungary's lesson

"Thematic map" for the weather stones, hand drawn by Theodor Schulze

In his publication from 1997, Peter Ungar did not present the final didactic play after its nine years of development, but went through four different productions since 1988. His focus is less on the “staging” of a finished didactic play and the experiences of the Teachers and learners ” , but rather on the “ step-by-step differentiation of the teaching idea through several 'performances' ” . The editors Hans Christoph Berg and Theodor Schulze take on the task of sketching out the history of geological considerations in advance:

In 1741 the theologian Johann Albrecht Bengel , like Bishop James Usher a century earlier , “calculated” the age of the earth to be 3943 years until the birth of Christ. At the same time, however, the French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon concluded that the cooling rate of large masses would already cover a period of 75,000 years, which has long since been corrected significantly up into the billions. In Brockhaus's “heroic age of geology”, first plutonists and Neptunists and finally Georges Cuvier's theory of cataclysm fought against James Hutton's principle of actualism , until Charles Lyell helped the latter to break through. Collections, measurements, assignments and cartographies were decisive for the new view of the history of the earth, behind which the theoretical development based on direct observation of phenomena took a back seat.

The productions in Marburg, Goldern, Frankfurt and Amöneburg

Heavily folded sedimentary rocks on a bulging slope of the Aare valley not far from Golderns; Picture from Ungar (1997)

Hungary's first approach to Wagenschein's sketch in 1988 was an excursion with student seminar participants from the Philipps University of Marburg . There can still be no talk of a “staging” there; However, Ungar is testing his idea of ​​supplementing Wagenschein's introduction with images through direct observation on site.

The first real test then takes place in 1990 at the historic Ecole d'Humanité in Goldern (today part of Hasliberg ), Canton Bern, before a 9th grade. There, Ungar is trying out an additional extension of the wagenscheinschen template for the first time by means of a geological investigation. The students are given the task of categorizing the rock samples they have brought with them, which should lead to the four groups of deep rocks ( plutonites ), effluent rocks ( volcanites ), sedimentary rocks ( sedimentary rocks ) and transformation rocks ( metamorphic rocks ). The actual pull question arises from the discovery of marine sediments (corals) at an altitude of 2,400 m in the Alps:

"How can the mountains have risen from sea level to alpine heights?"

This question leads first to Cuvier's “catastrophes” and finally, away from it, to Lyell's actualism.

River oasis sunk into the stratified limestone of the southern Atlas roof near Biskra (Algeria), as used with the Frankfurt class to determine the valley profile; from Hungarian (1997)

In the same year (1990) the second complete production takes place in front of significantly younger (grade 5) students at the Carl-Schurz-Schule in Frankfurt - Sachsenhausen . Ungar complements the staging with a consideration of valley profiles, using a method used by his teacher Hansjörg Dongus : A slide is projected onto a board and the teacher draws lines of the valley profile, which is then displayed for himself after the projector has been switched off Blackboard becomes recognizable. Finally, the students are given the task of drawing to suggest the development of a current valley profile over longer periods of time, which above all places the leveling factors in the foreground. For organizational reasons, the excursion takes the form of a city excursion in which the rocks of the Sachsenhausen houses are to be categorized. In the following, the origin of the respective rocks from the Frankfurt area (sandstone Spessart , Vogelsberg , Taunus , Vorderer Odenwald ) is assigned and the students have the task of drawing a rough geological map of the area from these assignments. This is followed by the already established elements of the teaching piece (interpretation of coral finds in the Alps, catastrophe theory and actualism).

Amöneburg pupil on a geological city excursion; Picture from Ungar (1997)

In 1995, after a five-year "consolidation phase", the last documented production of Hungary took place in front of a 6th grade of the St. Johann collegiate school on the basalt cone of the Amöneburg in central Hesse . The volcanism that is directly visible here comes into focus a little more and is also examined in more detail in an excursion to an outcrop . Otherwise, the teaching elements from Frankfurt will be used again and partially optimized.

The resulting didactic fable

Overall, Wagenschein's original version was expanded to include the following aspects:

  • Field excursions
  • geological parts
  • marine fossils in the Alps as a "hook" and motif for the relevant pull question
  • epistemological digressions

Ungar attaches importance to the fact that all phenomena are considered again not only at the beginning, but after the respective knowledge has been gained, as Wagenschein explicitly makes an issue in The Law of Fall in the Fountain Beam, but does not specifically mention it again in the history of the earth.

Overall, he divides his didactic play into four acts:

Act I: Unsettling prospects: Everything is going downhill

At the beginning there is pre-scientific astonishment, which should also be a motive for the students to turn to the topic from internal motives. A field excursion on site forms the start, then the presentation of pictures of very suggestive phenomena of erosion and erosion from all over the world leads to the question of how the landscape would have to change in the long term due to these forces. The pupils are given the task of recording such a development in a picture story as an example. Examples can also be given in which the erosion can be measured in centimeters per year.

Act II: volcanoes as a counterforce

A counterforce that is very well understandable from a student's point of view and which stands in the way of leveling comes from the volcanoes. The mighty volcanic mountains of Central America or Indonesia as well as Vesuvius , Etna or the witnesses of volcanic activity in Germany raise the question of whether the formation of all mountains can be traced back to volcanism.

III. Act: Verification with the help of geology

The act begins with the observation and categorization of rock samples from various origins. From the visible and tangible properties, genetic conclusions are drawn about their origin. To this end, theses must also be put forward as to the ways in which rocks can arise at all.

Depending on the location, the geology part can be supplemented by a field excursion or a geological city excursion; In the case of a city excursion, a supplementary excursion into the city's history is recommended. After the origin of the different rocks has been assigned, the students can draw a rough geological map of the area with the help of an atlas.

The knowledge is on the one hand that most of the mountains are apparently not volcanic and on the other hand that there is an astonishing amount of marine rocks in the low or even high mountains.

IV. Act: How the sea floor becomes high mountains: corals in the mountains

Curved limestone layers in the French Limestone Alps at over 2000  m above sea level. NHN , site of a fossil coral (from Ungar 1997)

Coral finds in the Alps raise the question of whether it would be possible that the sea level would have been correspondingly higher in earlier times, which students can usually falsify themselves based on conservation laws alone. After a “flood theory” is ruled out, Cuvier's catastrophe theory is outlined and critically examined.

The increase in the Swedish archipelago compared to the subsidence of the German North Sea coast, which can be measured at annual intervals, ultimately indicates that “slow” forces can also have a corresponding effect if you give them time. The fact that the Alps and the Himalayas are clearly rising year after year, which can be easily measured today, finally makes Lyell's topicality prevail. At this point, you can also take a trip into epistemology .

After the basic features of the plate tectonics have been discussed, a retrospective view from a higher point of view of all the phenomena considered so far is carried out.

Later variants

Especially in Switzerland , where Martin Wagenschein and the art of teaching are particularly popular, there have been various productions since Hungary's first publication. The following were documented in writing:

Thun variant

Urs Zurschmiede, teacher at the Thun grammar school , developed a “Thun variant” of Hungary's teaching piece in 2001 , which is particularly based on Hungary's golden staging.

The files are:

  • Act I: Everything goes to the valley
  • Act II: Wegener extinguishes volcanoes
  • III. Act: Rock-hard learning is fun
  • VI. Act: The sky around Thun is the seabed
  • V act: overall view

Zurschmiede extends the first act significantly on the one hand by dividing it into a four-part field excursion and a slide show, but on the other hand shortens it to include the drawing task. The name of Alfred Wegener in the title of the second act already indicates that Zurschmiede cannot hold Hungary's preliminary thesis that all mountains arise from volcanism, since schoolgirls already have knowledge of continental drift .

Trogen variant

As part of a three-year project by the teaching arts workshop at the Trogen Cantonal School , a staging on the Alpstein massif by the local teachers Hans Aeschlimann and Werner Meier was part of the standard program. In its “prelude”, geography first meets the discipline of artistic design , represented by Meier , when it is the task of the pupils to draw the mountain scenery seen. The “Alpine painter” Caspar Wolf (1735–1783) is introduced and his obvious scientific and geological understanding is worked out. The rest of the Trogen variant is a typical regional adaptation of Hungary's original, in which the geology also takes up significant space.

literature

The following list is arranged chronologically:

Web links

Commons : Wettersteine  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Completed dissertations from the Geography Department at the University of Marburg
  2. ↑ The second title is used by Berg and Schulze.
  3. ↑ This is assumed by both Ungar and Berg and Schulze (pp. 130/131) and Ungar (p. 137); see. Berg / Klafki / Schulze 1997. However, Cloos is not mentioned in Wagenschein's original text.
  4. ↑ cf. Wagenschein (1965), p. 5
  5. ↑ cf. Wagenschein (1965), p. 6
  6. ↑ s. Wagenschein (1965), p. 7
  7. ↑ Gheyselinck (1938) is meant; see. Wagenschein (1965), p. 7
  8. ↑ cf. Wagenschein (1965), p. 8
  9. ↑ Berg / Schulze 1997, pp. 133–205
  10. ↑ cf. Ullrich (2001)
  11. ↑ cf. Berg / Schulze (1997), pp. 136-140
  12. ↑ cf. Ungar in Berg / Schulze (1997), pp. 149–152
  13. ↑ see Ungar in Berg / Schulze (1995), p. 159
  14. ↑ cf. Ungar in Berg / Schulze (1997), pp. 152–165
  15. ↑ cf. Ungar in Berg / Schulze (1997), pp. 165-184
  16. ↑ cf. Ungar in Berg / Schulze (1997), p. 183; Ungar also mentions optimization in teaching arts workshops
  17. ↑ cf. Ungar in Berg / Schulze (1997), pp. 184–193
  18. ↑ cf. Ungar in erg / Schulze (1997), p. 194
  19. ↑ cf. Ungar in erg / Schulze (1997), pp. 194–201
  20. ↑ Note: The illustrated in the Wikipedia article School Seefeld is now with the school Schadau the school Thun merged, see Portrait of the high school Thun
  21. ↑ s. Zurschmiede (2001)
  22. ↑ cf. Aeschlimann and Meier in Eugster / Berg (2009)