Linking Educational Tourism to School Curriculum: Elaborating a Nuclear Tourism Route in Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant Region

Abstract

In recent decades, learning at museums and tourist sites has become increasingly relevant when emphasis has been placed on greater collaboration between the formal and informal education institutions and stakeholders looking for new opportunities for learning outside of school. Educational and learning activities in informal settings become an important domain of educational and cultural tourism, and school tourism is considered a valuable segment of the tourism industry. The authors of this chapter present a case for creating the atomic/nuclear tourism virtual route Atomic Visaginas https://www. atominisvisaginas.lt/lt/ in Ignalina Power Plant (INPP) region in Lithuania. The research question raised in this chapter is—what are the opportunities, strategies, and challenges associated with linking educational tourism activities and products to the curriculum of formal education? Objectives of the research presented in the chapter reflect the authors’ efforts (1) to reveal opportunities for creating connections between formal school curriculum and nonformal and informal learning outside the school in the settings of educational tourism destinations; (2) to delineate the specific features of nuclear tourism in Lithuania by employing a literature review and referring to findings of participatory action research with the involvement of stakeholders from Ignalina Power Plant (INPP) region; (3) to propose pedagogical strategies and solutions to establish links between geography and history curricula and the content of the nuclear tourist route in Lithuania