Feeling the pulse of Public Perception of Science: does Research make our hearts beat faster?

Genova, Italy

In 2007 the Italian Ministry of Education
identified the need of raising a new Humanism: students must
receive adequate tools for knowledge, but must also understand
and be able to handle the increasingly frequent transitions and
changes they have to face as citizens and individuals. Orientation
during the developmental phase must, hence, allow students to
acquire all those key and context-independent competences,
necessary for self-assessment of natural attitudes. Nevertheless,
the label “new Humanism”, should not be the first step for giving
even less importance to scientific education: there is no need to
enhance the existing general lack of interest affecting Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines
and literature; moreover, the social importance of scientific and
technological research can’t remain undervalued. All these issues
are a matter of concern for the European Community and, in
fact, the last European Directives concerning education and
social development, are trying to redirect and enforce
educational programmes towards a “knowledge-based society
and economy” that will support the societal challenges of the 21st
century and the growing demand of scientific expertise in all
sectors (necessary for boosting European economic
development). The most interesting strategies for implementing
these directives are all those activities that see a wide partnership
of schools with public institutions, enterprises and research
centres (e.g. science festivals, competitions and internships for
high school students). Recent studies, and the same
recommendations of the European Community, have also shown
that these activities, when included since the earliest years of
primary schools, have a deeper impact in the long term as they
match with the evolutive period in which intrinsic motivation is
strongly present.
This study is, hence, aimed to build an instrument able for
understanding if all these kind of activities are effective in
2
increasing: (1) appreciation and interest towards scientific
research and (2) number of young people considering a STEM
career as a possible perspective for their future (the question is:
‘does Science make our hearts beat faster?’).

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