In September, we organized two series of geology workshops at Terme Čatež for 5th-grade students from the Višnja Gora branch school and the Stična Elementary School, during which we introduced them to geology and the work of geologists. We familiarized them with the importance of the geosciences and emphasized their crucial role in everyday life and in the survival of humanity.

Using a model of an aquifer, we introduced the students to groundwater as the most important source of drinking and thermal water, its properties, and its use. Together, we identified some of the most significant sources of groundwater pollution and emphasized the importance of protecting water resources. By determining water properties such as hardness and acidity, the students discovered that the properties of water—or rather, the water sources in the Gorjanci Mountains, which are crucial for supplying their local community with drinking water— differ from those of the high-mountain regions of the Karawanks and other parts of Slovenia; in fact, they are strongly influenced by the rock composition.

The “Rock Cycle” workshop gave students insight into a continuous process spanning millions of years, in which the three main types of rocks are constantly transforming into one another under the influence of the Earth’s internal forces and external factors. In the “Rock Puzzle” workshop, students assembled cubes—representing minerals—into various types of rock. They learned that rocks differ from one another, a reflection of their mineral composition, which influences their most important properties. The properties of rocks—especially their hardness, solubility, porosity, and chemical composition—shape people’s everyday lives. They influence where we live, what we drink, how we build, and how the economy develops.

We conducted the workshops as part of the project Waterwise (Interreg Alpine Space).