Geoyincana Alicante: pruebas de destreza e ingenio al aire libre para el aprendizaje de la Geología

The Geogymkhana-Alicante is a game-based learning activity carried out annually since 2012. During these years around 10,000 students of secondary school (fourth year of the Compulsory Secondary Education and the first year of Bachillerato) have attended Geogymkhana-Alicante. It consists of a 2 km-long walking trip that combines direct explanations and outdoor skill and ingenuity games. In this paper, we analyse seven of the game-based learning activities of Geogymkhana-Alicante: the geological time race, the human stratigraphic superposition, geological Pictionary, find fossils, the geomorphological geoselfie, geomimic, and geological history: Final Enigma. Each year, these games achieved their main goal: to bring geology to students and teachers in an attractive way using field activities as main resource. We performed a quantitative survey to students and teachers. This survey showed a positive approval of the game-based learning field activities, and their suitability to better understand geological concepts. Despite its extracurricular nature, the activity helps to achieve several objectives of the official curriculum, as it favours the understanding of geological concepts, the knowledge of local geology, teamwork, active participation, and motivation for Geology and Science in a broad way.