Characteristics of Junior Ranger Activity Books of U.S. National Parks and Their Implications for Geomorphological Education in Korea

미국 국립공원 주니어레인저 워크북 특성 및 국내 지형교육에의 시사점

Junior Ranger is a self-directed interpretation program for young visitors at national parks in the United States. The success of this program can be largely attributed to the role of an activity book which is given an applicant free of charge at a visitor center. This study aims to analyze the main characteristics of activity books for 14 national parks' Junior Ranger and to draw some implications for Korean geomorphological education. Although the activity books are varied in size, volume and printing, all of them offer diverse activities which are composed of different contents related to park resources in four fields and are performed in different ways such as Q&A, picture and word game, and creative activity. The time-consuming activities including attendance at a ranger-led program prevent the participant from making a superficial visit to be a junior ranger. The implications of the study are as follows: Firstly, the geomorphological education for children is needed to be strongly based on field experience learning and to be more carried out using a way of game rather than conventional Q&A, suggesting that it encourages students not to lose their interest for learning. Secondly, it is also necessary for the learning contents to be focused on various resources related to landform as well as landform itself. In addition, a creative activity such as writing verse or drawing feeling should be more applied to the geomorphological education in order to enhance their effects on affective domain beyond cognitive one. It is likely to be an alternative approach to understand landform by internalizing a sense of landform.