In the System Earth - Primary Level project, teaching concepts and materials are developed and tested for scientific education at the primary level that enables to work on topics in a geo-science context. Beginning with the students' environment, an understanding of basic scientific concepts is to be built up to enable the children to develop simple biological, chemical, geological and physical connections. The students are to be lead to basal methods of scientific thinking and working using geo-scientific themes by means of hypothesis conducted experiments, criteria related comparisons and descriptive observations.

The interdisciplinary character of the course general science and social studies at primary level offers an ideal pre-requisite for the transfer of knowledge connecting the subjects with scientific contents from biology, chemistry, geography and physics. By networking these contents and the coaction of knowledge from various areas, an understanding of the complex relationships and the interplay from all areas of the System Earth are to be prepared.

The development of teaching materials orients itself according to three main areas:
systematic approach
strengthening science education
ontribution to the formation of sustainable development

The cataloging of the relationships in organic and inorganic nature and the mediation of competencies to explain these relationships is to promote the interest in the sciences and serve as the beginning point for successful learning in school later on.

The developmental work for the System Earth - Primary Level project began in the summer of 2002. Up to this point a sample for a textbook has been developed together with the teachers and students' conceptions about the structure of the earth have been studied. In the course of the project, teaching materials with experiments fitting the project description will be developed and then tested. With regard to the students' learning premises, studies will be made of the pre-instructional conceptions of and interests in the chosen topics. The effect of the lessons on learning success and the students' interest with regard to the contents to be taught is another open research question. This question will also be studied in the evaluation of the materials.

A textbook, consisting of 12 chapters and accompanied by a CD-ROM will be the final product. Subject-oriented and didactical information will then be available for the teachers as well as some animated modules for the students.

Each chapter of the textbook will have six pages that comes as three double pages and treat one topic. The chapters are to be networked among each other, yet applicable as modules. This enables the successive development of an understanding about how the various aspects of System Earth are related. In order to emphasize the relationships among the contents, the last chapter accentuates the networking and the interplay among the aspects treated.

Primary school teachers interested in the project are welcome to contact one of the following persons: