‘Rockbiter’ offers geology courses in English and Russian












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            * No exams for the winners: ‘Rockbiter’ offers geology courses in English and Russian
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            Introducing secondary-school pupils to the fascinating world of geology is the aim of the 

            Science [ URL "http://www.natur.cuni.cz/eng"] ’s Internet-based correspondence seminar Kam
            "http://kamenozrout.cuni.cz/"] (‘Rockbiter’, after the Neverending Story character). Parti
            forward to tasks prepared for them by experts from the CU Faculty of Science and other geo

            in Prague. Apart from the Czech-language version of the course, the organisers are now pre
            in English and Russian. The most successful participants do not have to sit university ent
            Every year the Kamenožrout team publishes a set of tasks on the seminar website that have 

            geology students. Every registered participant can then get down to work. Completed tasks 
            by geology students. “Not only do the most successful participants receive prizes and a ce

            for completing the course, which also confirms their acceptance for geology studies withou
            sit entrance exams, they also have the opportunity to take part in work experience at the 
            Science, the Czech Academy of Sciences or the Czech Geological Survey so that they can bec

            involved in research,” says Dagmar Sedliaková, a student and one of the project coordinato
            Kamenožrout has offered semester-long, Internet-based courses to secondary-school students
            geology enthusiasts of all ages) since September 2012. The following academic year saw the

            participant starting their studies at the faculty, their excellent knowledge of geology ha
            they didn’t have to go through the stress of entrance exams.
            The course has recently also attracted attention from abroad, inspiring students to develo

            Russian version. “We’ve started cooperation with the CU Institute for Language and Prepara
            [ URL "http://ujop.cuni.cz/en/"] . We passed the tasks on to foreign students learning Cze
            keen student from Zimbabwe got through the assignment and completed the tasks. He even fin

            overall. This gave us the idea to translate the course into other languages,” says RNDr. J
            Kamenožrout project’s specialist guarantor.
            However, the Kamenožrout team doesn’t want to restrict itself to the virtual world. Starti

            plans to take its ‘geoshow’ on tour around Czech and Slovak secondary schools. “We’ve prep
            interesting geological experiments and an interactive presentation on what geology is good
            is used in practice etc. If schools are interested, all they have to do is contact us and 

            them,” adds Dagmar Sedliaková.
            Over the rest of the year the Kamenožrout team also organises themed excursions and public
            geology and related subjects. Recordings of these can be found online [ URL "http://www.yo

            KamenozroutPrFUK"] .