To teach is to learn: high-school students, local university and informal science educators collaborate in communicating science to the public

Veronica Padovani,Alessandro Vescogni,Alessandro F Gualtieri,Carlyn S Buckler

doi:10.1186/1936-6434-6-7

Abstract

BackgroundInformal education, especially if in collaboration with formal education, can be an important vehicle for communicating current research in science to the public as well as significant in drawing the young nearer to science and helping them to understand the inherent processes.MethodsIn this paper we describe an international collaboration between a group of high-school students in Italy and Earth scientists and museum professionals from Italy and the US to plan and implement a scientific exhibition on symmetry, a topic chosen because of its connections to both Earth science and evolution.ResultsBy directly involving the high-school students in the design and implementation of the exhibition, they were given ownership of the project as well as ‘hands-on’ experience of communicating science to the public. The students involved helped design the content and layout of the exhibition, as well as with the design and fabrication of exhibition elements, marketing of the exhibition and evaluation. The design allowed the project manager to collect input from the students on how to make exhibitions more ‘user friendly’ to their age demographic, as well as to children and young adults in general. Although more research on similar projects is needed, evaluation results from this project showed that the response of the students - and of visitors - to the exhibition was significantly positive, and suggest that the project was engaging, cost effective and easy to implement.ConclusionsThis project may serve as a template for other formal and informal educators to develop these types of collaborations, using informal science education as a bridge to link science researchers and middle- and high-school students in creating an environment where students learn through actively participating in the public communication of science.

Highlights

Informal education, especially if in collaboration with formal education, can be an important vehicle for communicating current research in science to the public as well as significant in drawing the young nearer to science and helping them to understand the inherent processes
While these two studies do show that informal science educators can bridge the gap between university science research and local high-school students, clearly more examples need to be produced, and studies performed, to prove the efficacy and viability of this model. The goals for this project were to (a) increase awareness among students about their local university’s Earth Science department; (b) engage local high-school students in communicating Earth science to the public; and (c) create a template for a successful collaboration between a local university Earth Science department, informal science educators and local high-school students to design, manufacture and implement an Earth science exhibition. To address these issues, the Earth Science Department of an Italian university initiated a collaboration with a local high schoola involving a group of high-school students, university Earth scientists and museum professionals to plan and implement a scientific exhibition on the subject of symmetry - chosen for its connection to both Earth science and the evolution of life on Earth
This exhibition ran for two weeks at the school, and the entire project lasted approximately six months. (For the complete protocols, evaluations, surveys and statistics for the project, see, Earth System Science Informal Education Network 2008)

Summary

Introduction

Especially if in collaboration with formal education, can be an important vehicle for communicating current research in science to the public as well as significant in drawing the young nearer to science and helping them to understand the inherent processes. High-school students (i.e., the segment of the population from 14 to 18 years of age) are in a phase of their lives that is very important for the construction of their social conscience and career choices, making them a desirable target audience for science education initiatives (Gloeckner 1991). In Italy, research on science literacy (Program for International Student Assessment 2010) ranked Italian 15-year-old students below the average of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries (National Science Board 2010). Both Italian and US students scored in the bottom quartile; US students ranking 19th and Italian students ranking 21st of the 25 developed countries surveyed (National Science Board 2010; tables one to eight). China awarded nearly half of its first university degrees in STEM fields (46.7%), South Korea awarded 37.8% and Germany awarded 28.1% (National Science Board 2010; tables two to thirty-five)

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Results

Conclusion