Students' Professional Activities as the motivation of talented pupils to study Earth Sciences

The thesis focuses on Students' Professional Activities and its influence on high school students who participated. The aim of the thesis was to find out, how attending the competition in category Earth Sciences can influence students when choosing either field of study at college or future job. The thesis is divided into two units. Theoretical part deals with teaching geology on high schools and projects in Czechia and Slovakia that enable high school students to educate in geological fields. Special chapter about Students' Professional Activities is included. Practical part describes qualitative research which consisted in interviewing contestants and consequent analysis of interviews (coding, categorization). Interpretation was made by narrative approach. Results in the form of answered research questions show that attending the competition has significant positive influence on the contestants. In conclusion, both benefits and imperfections of Students' Professional Activities are summarized together with suggestions on better popularization of geology among students. Key words: geology, qualitative research, interviews, Students' Professional Activities, Earth Science