GEOWiki@LMU – an online platform for university and school education in geosciences

GEOWiki@LMU is a constantly growing open platform for the promotion of practical and research-oriented knowledge acquisition elaborated by and for students of earth sciences. The contents are developed by students in courses or on their own initiative in interdisciplinary teams. All topics are discussed in weekly editorial online-meetings and revised in close collaboration with lecturers. One of the main goals is to provide information on methods relevant to geosciences. Focus is on field, preparation and analytical methods. GEOWiki@LMU offers students a quick overview with helpful practical hints, provides references to relevant literature and links to the courses at LMU where these methods are taught. In addition, there are online tutorials for students, e.g. polarization microscopy. In the so-called GExikOn, articles are currently being created on the topics of rocks, minerals and soils. In addition, the subsection GEOWiki@School is under construction. It deals with school education and can be used by students and teachers. All articles are interlinked with each other. GEOWiki@LMU can be used flexibly and is constantly further developed. Outstanding is the own initiative of the students working in the GEOWiki-Team. They give decisive impulses for the selection and structure of the topics, write the articles and are involved in acquisition of funding. All graphics, icons and videos are created by students. In addition, the website is programmed by students: what doesn't fit is made to fit. The content is optimized for mobile devices, so information can be accessed spontaneously in the field, laboratory or comfortably on the couch.