Using a Geotrail for Teaching Geography: An Example of the Virtual Educational Trail “The Story of Liberec Granite”

Abstract

Geotrails are valuable resources for the field teaching of geography and natural history, as they amusingly explain the phenomena associated with inanimate nature and geoheritage. However, not all geotrails are frequently used for field education, in fact, most of them are only used sporadically. In order to identify the key elements needed for a geotrail to be used frequently and successfully for field education, an evaluation of the virtual nature trail “The Story of Liberec Granite”, which is one of the most used trails for educational purposes in the Czech Republic, was carried out. The evaluation was conducted using a questionnaire survey and structured interviews with teachers and other educational staff who have used the geotrail at least three times in their teaching. The results of the evaluation showed that the proximity of the geotrail to the school building is very important, that all geotrail materials must be developed with the target group in mind, i.e., school-age children, and that they must be professionally designed to appeal to the pupils. The geotrail should be accompanied by materials that can be used in field education (such as worksheets), containing tasks for pupils so that they do not remain only the passive recipients of information but become active participants in discerning information. Teachers will also appreciate it if there are methodological materials accompanying the geotrail that explain how to design the fieldwork.

1. Introduction

With the development of geotourism in the world, more and more geotrails are being built. Geotrails are thematic educational trails that serve to popularise knowledge in the field of natural sciences, especially geology, geography and biology [1,2,3]. They seek to convey knowledge about the objects of inanimate nature that visitors may see on their journey in an entertaining and popular way. They are therefore most often built in geoparks, national parks and other nature reserves. However, there are geotrails that focus on linking natural and cultural heritage and pass through towns or built-up areas [4,5,6].

In addition to being used for geotourism, geotrails can also be used for education [1,7]. For this purpose, it is advisable for a group of pupils or students to be led by a guide who explains the contents of the geotrail message to them personally. The guide must be able to engage the target group of children or adolescents, be an expert on the subject, be able to explain the phenomena in a simple and understandable way, use activating teaching methods (so that some less motivated pupils do not start to disturb the programme), use different objects in the surroundings (so that the pupils use their different senses to explore, and have the opportunity to ‘feel’ the object) and generally follow the principles of good interpretation [8,9,10]. The overall concept of a guided visit to the geotrail is that of a comprehensive educational programme with clearly defined objectives, a programme adapted to the target group in accordance with the client’s specifications. However, guided tours of geotrails are not common in all places. Generally, most of them are organised in geoparks [11,12], some in national parks and other nature reserves and relatively few are organised outside these regions [13,14].

Most often, the teacher is faced with the question of how to use the geotrail in his teaching. If it were a classical nature trail, with boards placed at the various points of interest, then teachers usually combine their own interpretation with tasks that use the text on the boards, which can be rather monotonous. Teachers are also limited by the extent of their knowledge, which is usually not at the level of a trained professional. It is therefore worth considering how to design geotrails in a way that teachers in all schools can use them in a more exciting and effective way that stimulates pupils’ and students’ interest in the subject [15,16,17,18].

This article presents the experience gained during the creation and subsequent evaluation of the usability of the urban geotrail called “The Story of Liberec Granite” [19], for educational purposes. The geotrail was created in 2020 as one of the outputs of the project “Geodiversity within the city: perception, function, potential”, where the aim was to test to what extent the theme of inanimate nature in the city is able to attract tourists. Due to the limited possibilities of placing educational signs in the area of the listed buildings, it was decided that the geotrail would take the form of a virtual educational trail, i.e., its content would be available on a website, the existence of which the visitor would learn at the place of its start (the North Bohemian Museum in Liberec) or at the local tourist information centre. The content of the geotrail was supplemented with educational materials (worksheets), as we expected it to be an interesting field learning opportunity in geography and natural history for local schools. The information about the existence of the virtual nature trail was subsequently disseminated to teachers in all schools and educators in non-profit organisations in the region, and after (less than) three years since the creation of the geotrail, a qualitative evaluation of its actual usability in teaching was carried out.

2. Theoretical Background

Geotrails are a form of geotourism module that can be found both inside and outside of geoparks [1]. It is a guided or self-guided trail of multiple (geo)sites that interprets geology and landscapes. A geotrail is made up of multiple sites that have landscapes and heritage significance that would be of interest to tourists and thus add to the visitor experience [20]. Geotrail is therefore one form of educational trails that focuses on inanimate nature and its links to the living nature and the cultural environment.

Geotrails are one of the products of geotourism, a type of tourism focused on the beauty of inanimate nature [21,22,23,24,25]. Geotourism is defined as “a form of natural area tourism that specifically focuses on geology and landscape. It promotes tourism to geosites and the conservation of geo-diversity and an understanding of Earth Sciences through appreciation and learning. This is achieved through independent visits to geological features, use of geo-trails and viewpoints, guided tours, geo-activities and patronage of geosite visitor centers” [25].

The targets of geotourism are places, known as geosites, which are part of the so-called geoheritage. “Geoheritage encompasses global, national, statewide, and local features of geology, at all scales that are intrinsically important sites or culturally important sites offering information or insights into the evolution of the Earth; or into the history of science, or that can be used for research, teaching, or reference” [26]. A geosite is then “a single location that offers tourism experiences through geology and landscape interpretation” [20].

Geotrails are not only a destination for geotourism, but can also be used for educational purposes. In this case, we are talking about geoeducation, which is understood as the teaching of geo-scientific facts [1]. Geoeducation is considered “a part of environmental education and education for sustainable development, which creates holistic access to geoscientific knowledge, geotourism opportunities, but also to geosite protection and regional awareness” [1,27].

An important part of geoeducation is the interpretation of facts, contexts and the surrounding environment, referred to as geointerpretation. Geointerpretation is not just about explaining facts, but is the whole art of communicating something essential about our natural or cultural heritage in such a way that the visitor, reader or listener accepts it, thinks about it and starts acting [28]. Geointerpretation is all the more complicated because geological phenomena include scales with which the human mind has no experience, therefore it is very difficult to imagine such situations (millions and billions of years, enormous pressures, temperatures, masses of rock, etc.) [29,30]. However, geointerpretation is an essential part of geoeducation, and therefore it is very important that the teacher or educator is also a good interpreter.

Although geoeducation can take place directly in schools or other educational institutions, it can also be used for fieldwork, which provides added value in that the subject matter can be seen live around you. Fieldwork is highlighted by a number of authors [31,32,33,34,35] as one of the best forms of learning, as it combines elements of experiential education, research and project teaching, and involves working in teams and cooperation in non-traditional activities, etc. However, on the other hand, fieldwork puts increased demands on teachers and is more time-consuming than regular teaching, due to the need to get out into the field [36,37]. Despite this, fieldwork is a key part of geoeducation [38,39].

3. Materials and Methods

The case study described in this article analyses a selected geotrail, the virtual nature trail “The Story of Liberec Granite”, which was co-designed by the author of this article The geotrail uses a part of the territory of the city of Liberec, namely the north-eastern surroundings of the city centre, where there are historical buildings from the 19th and early 20th century, a number of former quarries for Liberec granite and beautiful natural scenery around the Harcov dam. The content of the virtual nature trail can be found at https://geostezka.fp.tul.cz/ (accessed on 30 March 2023) [19]. All texts are unfortunately only in Czech, their translation into English is in Appendix A.

Given the educational focus of the article, it is also worth mentioning the address from where the didactic materials, that form a key part of the educational superstructure of the geotrail, can be downloaded: https://geostezka.fp.tul.cz/images/Didakticke-materialy.pdf (accessed on 30 March 2023) [40]. The file includes an introductory text explaining the use of the worksheets created, which are used afterwards. The worksheets are designed as black and white A4 sheets printed on both sides, and three of them are included in the file: one for primary school level 1 (ages 6–11), one for primary school level 2 (ages 11–15) and one for secondary school (ages 15–19).

Two methods were used to evaluate the usability of the geotrail, namely qualitative content analysis of teachers’ and other educators’ responses to the online questionnaire, and structured interviews with selected teachers and other educators. The online questionnaire was created using Google Forms and contained the following open-ended questions:

• With which groups did you visit the virtual nature trail “The Story of Liberec Granite”?
• Did you use didactic materials from the nature trail website in your fieldwork? In what way?
• Have you used videos, texts and images from the nature trail website in your fieldwork? In what way?
• Did your field training include the whole route of the nature trail or only a part of it? Why did you choose this option?
• What was the response of your pupils or students to the virtual nature trail “The Story of Liberec Granite”? What did they like and what did they like less?
• What do you personally like or dislike about the virtual nature trail “The Story of Liberec Granite”? What could we improve?
• Is everything clear to you from the texts on the website, or have your pupils or students asked you a question you couldn’t answer?
• Do you think that a similar virtual nature trail could work in the countryside, or is it more suited to the city?

The online questionnaire was not intended for the general public, but was to be filled out only by teachers and other educators who had walked the virtual nature trail “The Story of Liberec Granite” at least three times with a group of pupils or students aged 6–18. The link to the questionnaire was sent out by email and through social networks. The condition of at least three excursions was already pointed out in this email or social media post, but also was stated at the beginning of the questionnaire. In total, 33 respondents answered the questionnaire, of which 18 were primary school teachers, 7 secondary school teachers and 8 after-school teachers.

The second method used was structured interviews, which were conducted with teachers and other educators who had walked the geotrail at least six times with a group of pupils or students. The recruitment of this group was conducted in the same way as the first method, except that the teachers who met the requirement of six field trips were not asked to complete a questionnaire, but were asked to make an appointment for an interview. The interview was conducted online via Google Meet and the questions were the same as for the online questionnaire. The difference, however, was that the interviewer asked for more details about the respondent’s answers. A total of 8 respondents participated in the structured interviews, namely 4 primary school teachers, 1 secondary school teacher and 3 after-school teachers.

Before the implementation of both the aforementioned methods, a pilot survey using structured interviews was conducted on the experience of using the geotrail in teaching for a sample of 10 teachers. As a part of this pilot testing, it became clear that teachers who had completed the program with students only once or twice often failed to use the full potential of the materials we developed. On the contrary, one of the answers mentioned that “as I did the program for the sixth time, I already had it perfectly learned and prepared”. The results of the pilot survey led us to chose the aforementioned boundaries—three visits and six visits—as the threshold for inclusion in our research.

It should also be mentioned that all respondents had a university degree in the field of geography, biology, or related natural sciences, as this is required by Czech laws for the employment of a teacher. This is not a requirement for out-of-school education, however, organisations operating in out-of-school education usually require it because they want to provide high-level services. The majority of respondents were from Liberec (it is the closest to the trail and have a large number of residents), but almost 40% of respondents were from nearby towns and villages. The respondent from the farthest locality was from the town of Česká Lípa, which was 50 km away.

4. Results

4.1. The Theme of the Geotrail “The Story of Liberec Granite”

The city of Liberec—in whose north-eastern part the geotrail is located—is situated in the northern part of the Czech Republic (see Figure 1). It is the regional capital with a population of about 105,000 inhabitants. Originally a small town, it became the largest and most important town in the area during the Industrial Revolution, known for its engineering and textile industries, as well as for the mining of local granite [41,42]. Liberec granite is the traditional trade name for the coarse-grained igneous rock that makes up most of the bedrock in Liberec. Its characteristic light pink colour (see Figure 2) is mainly due to the pink crystals of potassium feldspar, which occupy up to half of the rock’s volume. Their shape is usually thickly tabular, with sections of the largest growths measuring about 3 × 2 cm. In addition to potassium feldspar, the coarse-grained parent material contains sodic calcareous feldspar, quartz, biotite and amphibole, muscovite and small amounts of zircon, apatite, titanite, orthite, magnetite and pyrite. [43] Its age has been dated at 319.52 Ma [44]. According to the current state of knowledge, it was formed during the slow solidification of magma during the Variscan orogeny as a part of some processes in the Krkonoše-Jizera plutonic complex [43,44,45,46,47].

Currently, the Liberec granite rises to the surface in a long belt bordering the Jizera Mountains from the west, south and southeast [42]. The core of the Jizera Mountains consists of the Jizera granite, which is very similar to the Liberec granite. The only difference between them is that the Jizera granite has an even coarser porphyritic structure [43]. Thanks to its physical properties, the Liberec granite forms attractive rock outcrops on the surface, which are popular with hikers and climbers (see Figure 3). Many of the buildings in the region are at least partly made of Liberec granite, which thus co-creates the genius loci of these places (see Figure 4).

Since Liberec granite is a unique local product, which also influences the appearance of the city of Liberec and its surroundings, we created the aforementioned virtual nature trail to bring this topic closer to the public. It is a sad fact that the majority of the city’s inhabitants do not know of the existence of Liberec granite and might not even guess that this ubiquitous pink stone is granite at all, because granite looks different (fine-grained grey-black) in pictures in school textbooks. However, the physical and chemical properties of granite have a significant impact on the appearance of the surrounding nature, and the remains of former mining are practically ubiquitous in the town. The topic of granite in Liberec is thus a good way to explain how geology influences the relief, climate, water flows, biota and the life of the people in the region.

4.2. Practical Implementation of the Geotrail “The Story of Liberec Granite”

The geotrail, “The Story of Liberec Granite”, was created in the form of a virtual educational trail. This means that a visitor who wants to follow the trail loads a web page on his/her smart device and follows further instructions. The route of the geotrail can be found in the enclosed map or navigated by GPS coordinates. When a visitor arrives at the stopping point, he/she loads the relevant page and reads its content. As the current younger generation is not very interested in reading, a short video is embedded at the beginning of the page explaining the basics of the stop (see Figure 5), replacing the live guide. Ideally, the visitor should watch the video first and then read the text to learn more about the topic. The stops are conceived as individual chapters in a ‘story’, thus building on each other and gradually revealing more context. The text is written to be understood by the general public and uses simple language with few technical terms to make it understandable to children.

From the educational point of view, the geotrail represents a coherent material dealing with the central theme of Liberec granite. It can therefore be used for field education, especially in geography and natural history, where geological topics appear. The concept of using the geotrail for field education is that the teacher briefly presents the topic at each station (instead of a video) and then the pupils work on the tasks from the worksheet. The worksheet (included in the didactic materials mentioned above, an example of which is shown in Figure 6) contains different types of tasks that test their abilities and skills (the worksheet takes into account the school curriculum and the expected knowledge and skills of pupils of different ages). Firstly, there are research tasks in which the pupils have to work out a fact or a rule; an example would be a task in which the pupils have to sort the different minerals according to their freezing points, based on the observation of the size of the crystals (larger crystals solidify earlier). Then there are tasks in which pupils undertake an observation of their surroundings; an example might be a task in which pupils have to find out what all the granites along the way is made of. In another task, pupils use information from the geotrail to answer questions that test their ability to think in context and apply what they have learned to other situations; an example of this is a task where pupils have to identify which rock formations are made of granite by the shape of the relief. The worksheet for secondary school students also includes tasks that test their general knowledge; an example would be a task that asks students to identify the geological period in which a rock was formed based on the known age of the rock. Last but not least, there are tasks that are light-hearted and playful in nature to make the worksheet fun to complete; for example, an eight-square or a maze. Some tasks are linked to specific stations, while others are completed sequentially. The geotrail and the tasks will take pupils about 4 h to complete.

In order to ensure that teachers and other educators are adequately trained before they use field education for their students, we have given several guided tours of the geotrail to interested students, one of which was part of an annual regional conference of geography and science teachers focused on environmental education. As a result, awareness of its existence spread among the target group and the geotrail started to be used for educational purposes.

4.3. Evaluation of the Usability of the Geotrail “The Story of Liberec Granite” in Teaching

Data from the questionnaire and structured interviews were analysed using standard qualitative coding (for more about the method see [48]), whereby responses were transcribed from sentences or spoken speech into keyword form and the relationships between them were recorded. Some questions included a quantitative figure (e.g., did you use? ≥ yes/no), in which case this response was also recorded. The results are presented in

Table 1. Responses to the questions from the questionnaire regarding the chosen form of fieldwork.

Question	Answers Given by at Least 3 Respondents
Did you use didactic materials from the nature trail website in your fieldwork? In what way?	90.2% yes (37 out of 41)
	As a supplement to my explanation (33/41)
	As an activation method (29/41)
	As an ongoing task, which the students had to perform (7/41)
	As a means of teamwork (6/41)
Have you used videos, texts and images from the nature trail website in your fieldwork? In what way?	100% yes (41 out of 41)
	As a supplement to my explanation (33/41)
	The students were divided into groups and had to report to the others on the part they had studied (15/41)
	As an ongoing task, which the students had to perform (6/41)
	To practice working with text (5/41)
	We used school tablets (5/41)
	We downloaded videos to school tablets (5/41)
Did your field training include the whole route of the nature trail or only a part of it? Why did you choose this option?	75.6% all the way (31 out of 41)
	The whole route:
	It makes the most sense to walk the whole trail (30/41)
	It’s just long enough (12/41)
	We wanted to use the full potential of the trail (9/41)
	Only part of it:
	We have too young pupils, it would be too long for them (8/41)
	We didn’t have that much time (3/41)

and

Table 2. Responses to the questions from the questionnaire concerning the evaluation of the geotrail content.

Question	Answers Given by at Least 3 Respondents
What was the response of your pupils or students to the virtual nature trail “The Story of Liberec Granite”? What did they like and what did they like less?	Liked it:
	Unusual theme (15/41)
	Surprising what all geology affects (13/41)
	Nice walk (8/41)
	Research tasks (7/41)
	Search in the field (5/41)
	Didn’t like it:
	Some pupils were not interested in the topic (9/41)
	Walking uphill (6/41)
	Some students were not able to find the phenomena mentioned in the field (4/41)
What do you personally like or dislike about the virtual nature trail “The Story of Liberec Granite”? What could we improve?	Liked it:
	Interesting topic (38/41)
	Nice walk (14/41)
	Well elaborated dramaturgy (12/41)
	Research tasks (11/41)
	It’s close, we don’t have to go far (5/41)
	What to improve:
	Graphic design of some outputs (maps, worksheets) (16/41)
	Give teachers methodological guidance (7/41)
Is everything clear to you from the texts on the website, or have your pupils or students asked you a question you couldn’t answer?	22.0% encountered a question they could not answer (9 out of 41)
Do you think that a similar virtual nature trail could work in the countryside, or is it more suited to the city?	68.3% yes, it can work in nature (28 out of 41)
	Pros:
	Today, there is good mobile signal coverage everywhere (8/41)
	In nature, the experience can be even more intense (7/41)
	Arguments against:
	There’s a bad cell signal (11/41)
	Couldn’t load videos (10/41)

, with Table 1 showing the results of responses to questions relating to the chosen form of fieldwork, while Table 2 shows the results of responses to questions relating to the evaluation of the geotrail content.

The results presented in Table 1 show that the majority of teachers accepted the structure of the geotrail and used the whole route, the proposed didactic materials and the content of the website. These materials were most often used to supplement the teacher’s explanation, and the form of their use varied between respondents. As far as didactic materials are concerned, many teachers appreciated that they were already prepared and they did not have to curate them themselves. Some teachers saw them as a method of engaging pupils to ensure that they paid attention, focused on the fieldwork topic and actively did something themselves. A number of teachers also reported that they used the worksheets as an ongoing task to keep pupils occupied during transfers. Some teachers used the didactic materials for group work because they found them too difficult for individuals or to promote the pupils’ ability to work together. Teachers who did not use didactic materials did so on the basis that they did not like to use worksheets in fieldwork, that the activity would delay them (they had little time), their pupils were not used to it, etc.

For the second question, 100% of the respondents said they had used at least some of the content on the geotrail website. Only a few respondents used videos because they are demanding in terms of the download volume. This could have been avoided by downloading them to school tablets, which some teachers did. Others, however, did not use videos at all in their fieldwork. The variety of different uses of the website content was interesting, with a popular form being that pupils were divided into groups, asked to study the content of one paragraph and then tell the others about it. This method was recommended in the workshops and teacher conference (see above) where we introduced geotrail, and from the teachers’ reactions we can say that it was a success. Some teachers saw the use of the website as practising working with text, for example, devising their own questions for pupils to answer. The use of smart devices also varied, with some teachers showing the website content themselves on special large screen tablets, others putting school tablets in groups or having pupils use their own smartphones.

About 75% of the teachers had walked the entire route of the geotrail with their pupils and appreciated its good dramaturgy and emphasis on a coherent story. These were usually the teachers who had more time for fieldwork and had older pupils. The remaining quarter, on the other hand, adapted or shortened the route, mostly because the route was a bit long and some topics were too complex for pupils in the first year of primary school (6–11 years old). Even in our didactic materials, we recommend not to walk the whole geotrail route with this age group and to use only the first four stops. Some teachers adapted the route because they needed to go in a different direction (to the school, to a public transport stop, etc.).

The results presented in Table 2 address the evaluation of the geotrail content, thus providing us with feedback on whether the virtual nature trail concept and its specific implementation is evaluated favourably or not. In general, positive evaluations prevail. If any teacher considered the geotrail a waste of time, he or she would have probably not completed it three times with his or her students (which was a requirement for completing the questionnaire). However, the evaluation also contains some thought-provoking criticisms. The first of this block of questions asked about the pupils’ response to the geotrail. The pupils were intrigued by the unusual topic (‘how can ordinary granite be interesting’), the interesting interdisciplinary relationships (what all geology affects), the exploratory tasks, the tasks interacting with the environment and the fact that it was a walk through a beautiful environment. Conversely, some students were not interested in the geology topic, complained about going up a big hill during the geotrail, or were frustrated that they could not find or interpret things in the field that the worksheet asked them to do. One respondent commented on this in a structured interview as follows:

“Many students complained that the worksheets were difficult and that they were just guessing the outcome of the task. But that is the result of a bad education system, where for years they have been asked to memorize the answers or, at most, to find them in the text, not to come up with them themselves. If they are then even asked to find the answers in the field, they are completely lost.”

Regarding the teachers’ own assessment of the geotrail, the positive responses were largely consistent. Critical comments were more often about the graphic design of the worksheets and the map, which some teachers printed out for the pupils and then let them navigate between the stations. It should be noted here that the geotrail was created as a by-product of a research project where there was no funding for graphic work. Therefore, the graphic design of the output is not of a professional standard. Other criticisms focused on the fact that some teachers lacked comprehensive methodological material explaining the details of the use of the geotrail in the classroom and giving all the correct answers. It should be noted here that these methodological guidelines were explained at the events when the geotrail was introduced to the educators, i.e., at the workshops and the teachers’ conference. However, respondents who did not attend these events would have appreciated such material, which may provide inspiration for future geotrail implementations. On the other hand, however, we do not consider it appropriate that teachers should also receive material with the correct answers, because if they want their pupils to have these answers, they should be able to find them themselves or discover them in the field (especially if we consider that all teachers have a university degree in geography, biology or other natural sciences). In addition, it is advisable for teachers to go through the geotrail, familiarise themselves with the surroundings and the tasks in the worksheet, and create their own scenario to follow before undertaking the fieldwork with their pupils.

Another question asked respondents if they were surprised by any question from students during their fieldwork that they did not know how to answer (and the answer was not included in the geotrail materials). About 22% of the respondents reported that they did, and this was usually a question asking for details about the extraction of granite, its physical properties, specific quarries in the area, use in specific buildings, etc. Given that the questions were quite unique and did not relate to any one key issue, it can be inferred that no key information is likely to be missing from the geotrail materials.

The last question asked whether respondents thought that the concept of a virtual nature trail could be used outside the city, in the countryside. Around two-thirds of the respondents thought so, with the main argument being that there is now good mobile signal coverage almost anywhere, and that the concept could be used even better in the countryside (especially research and fieldwork tasks). On the other hand, sceptics of the use of the virtual nature trail concept mostly argued that there is a poor mobile signal in the countryside or the quality of the data connection is not sufficient to load videos. It should be noted that when using the virtual nature trail concept, local conditions (i.e., whether the mobile signal quality is sufficient in a given location) should always be taken into account. However, the content can be stored on school tablets (which are now widely available in the Czech Republic) and thus be virtually independent of mobile connections.

5. Discussion

If we compare the results with similar studies described in the literature [1,49,50,51], we can conclude that since the geotrail is a kind of nature trail, it can be used for field education in geography and natural history. However, in order to be a really valuable resource that can be used without much input from the teacher (where a good teacher can use almost anything for field education), it needs to meet certain principles that emerged from the evaluation of our developed geotrail “The Story of Liberec Granite”. These principles are discussed below, supplemented with references to studies that confirm them:

• The geotrail should have one strong central theme that links the themes of all the stops [8,9,10,28]. This can engage students more than information about all the different things that can be seen in the area. The presence of a strong central theme was very much appreciated by the respondents and was able to engage even pupils who did not have a very positive relationship with geology.
• The stops on the geotrail should have a well-developed dramaturgy that gradually reveals new information and context [8,9,10,28]. Each stop is actually another chapter in a story that starts at the first stop and ends at the last. The content should target human emotions and use the principles of good interpretation. This is the only way for pupils to remember something.
• All texts should be written in clear language without excessive use of technical terms so that children (i.e., the target group) can understand them [1,9,10,28]. Although this was not mentioned by our interviewees, various other studies have mentioned that geological nature trails, in particular, are written in overly technical and incomprehensible language to the layperson. This is a big mistake, nature trails are not made for experts but for non-specialists.
• As younger generations are increasingly becoming less interested in reading, they need to be reached in other ways, such as through videos [1,51,52,53]. All texts should be rather shorter and interspersed with rich visual material. In addition, the short split text can also be used in fieldwork; some teachers have used it for group assignments.
• In order to draw students into the story told by the geotrail and not just be passive recipients of information, it is necessary to use engaging teaching methods [9,10,28,50]. The evaluation showed the best results for research-oriented tasks, where pupils try to figure out a fact or rule based on an experiment or observation, and for tasks requiring interaction with the environment, where pupils try to find out something directly in the field. Ideally, a set of such tasks should be available to the geotrail in the form of some didactic material. The didactic materials we developed have been evaluated very positively by teachers, although they have some shortcomings. However, teachers appreciated the fact that they did not have to create them themselves, which would have taken a lot of time.
• The use of modern technologies is possible, but not necessary. In the case of our geotrail, we used the virtual form because it was not possible to place the educational boards in the area of a listed building (moreover, the virtual trail is significantly cheaper and there is no need to deal with vandalism problems). However, the use of modern technology has certain pitfalls, hence the respondents’ reactions in this regard were varied. There are various examples of the use of modern technology in field education [52,53,54,55,56,57], with virtual and augmented reality in particular being very attractive to pupils, but the more sophisticated the technology, the more demand it places on equipment and possible internet connectivity. Some teachers thus prefer simpler options [8,49,50,51].
• The content should be appropriate for the age group [1,9,10,28,50]. The didactic materials we developed had three variants according to the age of the pupils or students. For the variant used in secondary schools, some respondents mentioned that their students found the tasks too difficult. This could have been because the tasks were aimed more at pupils of grammar schools, i.e., selective schools, and thus may have been too difficult for other students.
• If the geotrail is to be used for educational purposes, it is advisable to use professionals to graphically process all outputs and prepare the best possible support material for teachers [1,9,10,50,51]. These two things were relatively criticised with our geotrail and we would do better next time. Good graphic design increases the attractiveness of any content, and good quality methodological materials increase teachers’ willingness to use the geotrail for fieldwork. We need to figure out how to distribute the methodological materials so that students cannot download them from the internet to find out the correct answers.

Within the article, only one possible form of geotrail was presented. Of course, it can also take the form of a classic nature trail, a leaflet or brochure that visitors take with them, use an app, etc. There are geotrails in the Czech Republic that use more advanced technologies, are better graphically processed, or pass through a more attractive environment (e.g., in one of the national geoparks). Worth mentioning is, for example, the mobile app, Hidden Stories [54], which contains virtual nature trails with tasks on various topics across the Czech Republic. Augmented reality and a 360° video sphere include, for example, the virtual nature trail “Behind the Iron Treasure”, created by the Ralsko National Geopark [55]. Virtual reality and thematic videos are used, for example, in the “Granite Trail through Horky”, created by the National Geopark Železné hory [56] (more about the topic of using interactive elements in education can be found in [57]).

However, if the “Story of Liberec Granite” is a leader in anything, it is the use of this geotrail for field education, because in less than three years of its existence, over 150 educational programmes have been held here, with the youngest participants being 8 years old (3rd grade of primary school) and the oldest over 80 (excursions within the university of the Third Age course). This is why we think that it makes sense to share the experiences we have gained. The reasons for this success are the facts that the geotrail is located directly in the city and is thus easily accessible (compared to geotrails in national parks and geoparks), it uses modern interactive methods, there are already developed didactic materials for it, and several workshops have been held to promote the geotrail wherein the educational concept of the geotrail was thoroughly introduced to the target group of teachers.

6. Conclusions

Geotrail is one form of geoheritage popularisation, useful for Earth Sciences education. Geotrails are usually located in areas with attractive geotopes, such as geoparks, national parks and other nature reserves. However, from an educational point of view, it is better if geotrails are located closer to schools so that they can be used during the class and not only as destinations for day trips. Therefore, it also makes sense to build geotrails passing through or close to cities. The article introduced the geotrail “The Story of Liberec Granite”, which differs from the usual nature trails in two ways: firstly, it only passes through the city (although it also passes through parks and urban greenery) and secondly, it is only virtual, i.e., there are no signs or similar things placed in the terrain. Moreover, one of the main goals in creating the geotrail was to use it for education, so didactic materials for schools were developed and the geotrail was introduced to teachers and other out-of-school educators in several educational events. After less than three years of the geotrail’s existence, an evaluation of the geotrail in terms of its use in education was carried out.

The results of the evaluation showed that although the proposed geotrail had some shortcomings, overall the teachers were happy that it existed. The interesting topic (Liberec granite as a local unique) and its accessible treatment (according to the principles of the theory of good interpretation), as well as the route of the geotrail (nice surroundings) and its dramaturgy (each stop as another chapter in the story) were positively evaluated. On the other hand, the graphic design of some of the outputs and the lack of methodological material for teachers have been criticised. For the didactic materials, the research tasks and the tasks requiring pupils to interact with the environment were positively evaluated. The graphic design and the high-difficulty level of the tasks in the secondary school version were criticised.

As a part of the survey, respondents were also asked how exactly they use geotrail materials in their fieldwork. The responses indicated that they varied quite a bit, resulting from the form of fieldwork teaching preferred by the teacher in question. Some teachers used the worksheets to engage their students after their explanation at each station, while others had students complete the tasks continuously, even at transfer points. There were also differences in whether the worksheet was completed by each pupil or by groups of pupils. Additionally, there were differences in whether teachers gave pupils school tablets and whether they saved the videos to internal storage on these tablets beforehand. However, despite all the differences in the different teachers’ conceptions of fieldwork, all were happy that worksheets were created for the geotrail and that they did not have to create them themselves.

From our analysis and conclusions, we have drawn out certain recommendations for future geotrails. First, the proximity of geotrails to schools is important, so it makes sense to build geotrails in urban environments. Although there are certainly better developed geotrails in the Czech Republic, which use more advanced technologies (virtual and augmented reality, etc.) and pass through more attractive environments, the presented trail “The Story of Liberec Granite” is probably the most used for educational purposes because it is located right in the city centre. Secondly, all geotrail materials must be developed with the target group in mind, i.e., school-age children. It is important to avoid the overuse of technical terms, ensure to use simple language to explain messages, use similes, and appeal to the emotions and life experiences of the target group. In general, it is advisable to be aware of the principles of good interpretation, as only well-interpreted knowledge will be understood by the target group. Furthermore, it should be taken into account that younger generations read less and receive much more information often through videos. Texts should therefore must be shorter and interspersed with rich visual material. Thirdly, in order to ensure that field education is not just a passive stopping-off point, it is necessary to use engaging teaching methods that bring pupils into contact with their surroundings. Based on the above results, we can recommend the inclusion of exploratory tasks and tasks requiring pupils to interact with the environment in the worksheets. Fourth, the design of the geotrail must be of a professional standard and provide maximum comfort to the teacher. In addition to the content, the medium of imparting is also important, i.e., the graphic design of the deliverables and the use of modern technologies. The teacher should thus receive not only prepared worksheets but also methodological material explaining how to design the whole fieldwork. The less energy the teacher is forced to put into preparing the fieldwork, the more willing and frequent he/she will be to do it with his/her pupils. I hope that your geotrails will be as popular in the classroom as our “The Story of Liberec Granite”.