EarthCaching as a Possible Way to Raise Environmental Awareness?

Abstract

EarthCaching is a special form of geocaching. An EarthCache offers an earth science lesson by visiting a unique geological feature. The aim of the study was to find out if people who are involved in EarthCaching act more environmentally friendly than other persons, because the intensive study of physical geographic phenomena in nature could have positive effects on environmental awareness. The questionnaire from Schahn’s SEU 3 survey (1999) was used as the basis for the questionnaire the author used. The data was collected at the EarthCaching event in Goslar 2015. The answers were evaluated with the help of the program SPSS 24. First, the typical characteristics of EarthCachers are shown, which are then related to the results of Schahn’s questionnaire. The results suggest that there is a connection between environmental awareness and EarthCaching. In particular, the creation of EarthCaches can be conducive to environmental awareness. As the results show, this type of cache could be used even more in the future in the context of environmental education.