New Perspectives in Science Education

Edition 13

Accepted Abstracts

“La Bottega della Scienza”: A New ”Junior” Science Shop

Matteo Serra, Fondazione Bruno Kessler (Italy)

Abstract

“La bottega della scienza” is an innovative laboratory of participative research based in Trento (Italy) and hosted by Fondazione Bruno Kessler (a research institute) with the funding of Autonomous Province of Trento, that brings together three different actors of the society: citizens, researchers and high school students. The aim of the project is to collect scientific research proposals from citizens, high school students and teachers: after a selection process, the best proposals become real research projects carried out by the students themselves under the supervision of researchers of Fondazione Bruno Kessler and of other local research centers. At the end, for each project the students have to present their results in the form of a scientific paper. The goal of the project is twofold: on the one hand, to encourage the active engagement of citizens and schools in the scientific research (a classic goal in a "science shop" initiative, where citizens can express requests and needs that can give origin to a research, usually carried out by researchers and/or university students), and on the other hand to offer young students the opportunity to "touch" the needs of the local community in which they live and to measure themselves against the design and implementation of a research activity based on a real need, in the "name" of civil society, or also (in some cases) carrying out a research proposed by themselves. The project has started with the first edition in the school year 2018/2019. We present the final results of this first edition, where the students of three local high schools realized four on-demand research projects (based both on citizens’ suggestions and proposals by students and teachers of the engaged schools): a study of the environmental impact of 3D printers, a survey about gender discrimination, a questionnaire for students on learning strategies and a study of the vegetation of a local river by means a drone.

Keywords: participative research, science shop, engagement.

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