A CASE STUDY FROM THE INNER CITY OF ATHENS , GREECE

The limited exploitation and low understanding of geological notions, in modern education in physical sciences, motivated the planning of research procedures about the understanding of rock formations, of recognizing rocks, of informing about geological and hydrographic potential, for students of secondary school of Attica, using techniques entailed in the scientific/educational methodology by inquiry, suggesting educational walking paths through the historical center of Athens. Selected places of the walk trail served our educational aims. Via the educational intervention, students improved their understanding of geological notions, their creativity, their cooperation and their critical thinking. The educational walk trail motivated the students’ interest in the science of geology.


Background and Objectives
Most people think that the urban area is poor for geological study and contains few useful geological data "With all the constructions, the initial data that could provide the references for the tectonic regime have been lost" (Chuang Xu et al., 2015). This thought derives from the fact that "In urban areas the initial surface has been shaped due to the rapid growth, in a way that covers the needs of the inhabitants of a region. The land surfaces have been built and sharpened artificially, roads have been constructed, and the hydrographic networks have been changed and shaped, while natural surface have been fragmented and degraded, hence the constructed landscape is "poor" for geological study (Zervopoulou and Pavlides, 2016). In our research we studied the city in the light of geology, the designed geological walk trail is a practical endorsement, where the students will use fieldwork skills to identify a range of rocks and geological materials in the built environment and can also be informed about geological features of the area.
From the geological point of view, the basin of Athens is bound to the east by Mountain Hymettus which is built by metamorphic alpine formations (marbles In this research the educational aims for the students were: a) to recognize rocks b) to be informed about geological and hydrological potential, and finally, c) to understand the geological notions in time and in space, that means to recognize the geological time and to comprehend the rock cycle (Kali et al., 2003). The educational goals of our proposal were: a) to inform students about the urban environment of Attica, b) to show that geology is an attractive and important science, c) to study geological phenomena with an interdependence procedure with geosciences and d) to view physical phenomena with a holistic approach, improving students' ecological consciousness.

Research Methodology
This educational procedure took place in Athens in 2018-2019 and 160 students of 15 years old, from secondary schools of Attica took part. We In this work, we attempted to follow research steps, (Kalkanis, 2010) set forth by inquiry-based learning (Dermott, 1996)  After our educational intervention the following percentages derived: From the control group educated with teacher-center method, only the 45% of them understood the educational aims. From experimental group following the Geological walk trail, the 75% of the students understood the educational aims.

Main research study: Walk trail through Monastiraki.
The good results of our pilot research encouraged us to search and to design a walk trail which will combine our educational aims. For that purpose we selected stops which were very closed to each other, they were in an area with rich geological features (river: Eridanus, hills: Lycabettus, the Acropolis, Philopappus) and they had a wide range of rocks in the built environment. In this specific study: Monastiraki-Kapnikarea-Pantanassa-Library of Hadrian -Roman Market, is the walk trail that was selected, (Figure 4) We first enlisted the aid of 3 small groups of students to help us formulate the approach. An educational proposal with semi-structured interviews was carried out, using the proper equipment and following the necessary rules of safety.
Each student had a hand lens ×30, a street map, a small water bottle and a field notebook. Health and safety were considered by a centre before undertaking the work trail. A full risk assessment of any activity was undertaken including the information about the weather broadcast. We continuously assessed the safety of our working environment. The main risks were posed by traffic and we took care crossing roads and stepping back to take photographs. We were respectful and courteous to members of the public. If it was appropriate, we asked permission to take photographs, especially in indoor locations. We asked for permission from security officers and we scheduled our visit at the Metro Station of Monastiraki. The good results from our tools of research became a trigger for pursuing the main research with an experimental group of students from a secondary school of Attica.

SELECTED SITES
The following sites have been selected as points of this research.

The River Eridanus
The River Eridanus, is highlighted and the natural bed of the river became visible after the construction of the metro and the repair of the Monastiraki square. It is very interesting that the design of the square is in accordance with the flow of the water in the bed of the river. The water of the rainfall follows the slope and the engraving of the terrain according to the flow of the river. It Volume 56 is a unique picture in a city, because someone cannot see any other hydrographic network in the Centre of Athens.

Fig. 5: The River Eridanus is almost subterraneous, is rising at the foot of
Lycabettus and is flowed through the heart of Athens city. Students from secondary school of Attica visited the the Metro Station of Monastiraki.

Kapnikarea
There are many Byzantine churches in the historical center of Athens. and the other three columns are made from granite.

Pantanasa
Pantanasa is also a byzantine church located in Monastiraki. For the construction of walls limestones with fossils of the Pliocene age were also used.

Hadrian's Library
When the students entered the library, they came across with Phrygian pink marble with blueish veins. One hundred columns were made of Phrygian stone. The stoas and the walls were made of the same material (pavonazzetto).
The quarries, located in Phrygia -today in Turkey-were imperial property.

142
Volume 56 8a 8b Fig. 8: a) Regarding third and fourth research steps, students visited Hadrian Library b) when the students entered the library, they came across with many wells. For this reason we cannot reconstruct the church which was there.

Roman Market
Regarding the fifth research step, the students entered the roman market and

Results and Conclusions
The preliminary results of our research involving the experimental group, notions with a pre-test and a post-test. The students did strikingly better on the experimental group than the control group. On the control group, only 20% of the students could combine geological procedures. This jumped on the experimental group to 95% (Fig. 11a.). Being able to state the rules that govern geological procedures jumped from zero to 100% (Fig. 11b) and they improved their creativity.
Also, all the students of the experimental group learned about geological and hydrological potential (Fig. 12.) getting better their understanding and the 95% of the students of the experimental group could recognize rocks (marbles, granites, limestone and fossils) after the educational geological walk trail and they improved their critical thinking (Fig.13). Almost all the students from Geological Society of Greece

144
Volume 56 experimental group admitted that geology is a very interesting science changing their attitude towards geology (Fig. 14). Ιt is worth mentioned again, that the students of experimental group educated and worked together in small teams of 5 persons, improving their cooperation and communication ability. Fig. 11: Understanding of geological procedures.  Students' understanding, creativity, cooperation and critical thinking were spectacularly improved. Such skills are classified in Bloom's taxonomy as belonging to the 'analysis' and the 'synthesis' higher-order cognitive levels (Bloom, 1984). They learned about the river Eridanus, they could recognize white marble of Pendeli, grey Hymettus' marble, green marble of Karystos, granites and limestones with fossils.

(a) 11(b)
The educational geological walk trails seems to have clear value in student motivation and in student learning.

Acknowledgements:
The authors would like to thank the Director of Paleontology-Geology Museum, Professor Vassileios Karakitsios.