ScienzAperta is a major event created eight years ago by the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) to offer the public throughout the country the opportunity to get to know the places of scientific research in the Earth Sciences.
With Giuliana D'Addezio, INGV researcher and national coordinator of the project, the experts in teaching and scientific dissemination of the Rome, Milan, Portovenere, Rende, Catania and Palermo offices met the children and young people under one hundred years old from March to May 2019. This year the meeting with the public was - if possible - even more exciting. The memory of the L'Aquila earthquake 10 years after the event has made scientific dissemination more engaging, because the need to know the mechanisms of the Earth and to understand its voice has become an essential requirement. And this is why the researchers have made their time available to the public even on weekends and, with the passion that always animates them, they have guided visitors in the laboratories, museum itineraries and monitoring rooms.
From the Milan office, the researcher Gemma Musacchio coordinated the event called “Earthquakes… for schools”. This year, in fact, we wanted to address our activities to students by teaching them the understanding of seismic risk. Furthermore, with the help of experts from the Civil Protection Department, the fundamental issue of mitigating the risks associated with seismic and volcanic events was tackled, taking up the challenges of seismic engineering for safe construction. With games, competitions and interactive activities, around 400 children from the schools of Milan, Turin, Savona, Baranzate and Busto Arsizio recounted the earthquake with creativity and emotion and with the appointment "MILAN calls SALA... SALA, can you hear us?" they had the opportunity to make virtual "visits" in real time in the Seismic Surveillance Rooms of Naples and Catania, the "warm" hearts of INGV for volcanic monitoring.
In the Portovenere office, instead, Giovanna Piangiamore, a researcher, has devised courses connected to socio-emotional learning. SEL (Social Emotional Learning), in fact, is a didactic of emotions that stimulates learning: remembering to grow in resilience without ever losing hope and to be active in collective choices. Emotions become learning with the experience of the rescuers which reinforces the images and the flow of stories by Alessandro Frione, firefighter, and passages read by Paolo Trolese (also a firefighter, author of the book "Free thoughts of firefighters "). The geological fairy tales of the 2009 tent cities in Abruzzo, told by the geologist and storyteller Paolo Cortopassi, brought a little distraction and elicited a few smiles with his talking puppets. The participation of the Fire Brigade, with the testimony of the Provincial Commander of La Spezia Leonardo Bruni, emphasized the importance of synergy with the institutions to find spaces of positivity in the pain of traumatic experiences.
In Rende (CS), the INGV researchers, led by Pierdomenico Del Gaudio, have opened the seismology and volcanology laboratories to the public, creating fun experiments and guided tours to discover Planet Earth.
The team of the Etna Observatory of Catania, coordinated by the researcher Vincenza Maiolino, has created intense and varied appointments. In addition to the usual educational tour of the tools and techniques for surveillance and monitoring of Sicilian volcanoes, the scientists accompanied the visitors on a journey through time: in the past, with the great Etna eruption of 1669, in the present, with the recent eruptive activity of Etna and in the future, through the eye of drones and with the help of immersive virtual reality to learn about the new territorial investigation tools. To enrich Catania's offer, the projection of the videos "Evolution of Etna", created in collaboration with the Etna Park, and "Sensations in one click: Etna, the eruptions and the territory", created in scope of the National Civil Service Project. And precisely the young people of the "Galileo Galilei" Scientific High School, with the training project in School-Work Alternation, supported the staff of the INGV-OE welcoming the public and the students in the guise of "Young Scientific Divulgators": an experience unique to foster and promote the link between school, research and knowledge. Finally, for the first time, ScienzAperta has led the public to discover the Integral Nature Reserve of Isola Lachea and Faraglioni dei Ciclopi", organizing in collaboration with the Cutgana Research Center of the University of Catania, with the patronage of the Italian Geological Society, of 'Italian Association of Volcanology and the Marine Protected Area - Cyclops Islands, a journey through culture, science and nature to discover the Reserve which since its origins has allowed respectful observation of its flora and fauna.
In the Sicilian capital, the researchers coordinated by Giorgio Capasso have dedicated their energies above all to the education of the students, involving them since kindergarten in the knowledge of the territory and, with drawings and origami, they have helped the children to create paper volcanoes to to the knowledge of the fire-breathing giant. On the other hand, for older high school students, the researchers from the Palermo office held seminars on the seismic and volcanic activity of our country, on defense against seismic events and on new research for volcanic monitoring.
Finally, the INGV headquarters in Rome was the protagonist of conferences, museum itineraries and educational workshops to open the world of science to the curiosity, interest and emotion of the public. Over the course of a week, seminars by scientists from all over Italy took turns dealing with Earth Sciences from different horizons, terrestrial and spatial, with an appointment also at the Geophysical Museum of Rocca di Papa to understand the Earth by looking at the sky. Finally, the exhibition "Vision of the Earth - seismological and volcanological art and visual culture" was all to be experienced.
“This year too has been an exciting adventure” - said Giuliana D'Addezio. “The participation of the public is more and more numerous every year and this stimulates us to always create new and exciting itineraries. The forces of nature arouse curiosities in us that are part of our history as citizens of the Earth. The enthusiasm we receive when we start promoting local events is a wonderful reward for building ever more engaging narratives of scientific research. This year, then, the virtual reality tools that we have presented have made it possible to "see" what we discover with research work. Our promise is to always work to offer the best, so that science is not always the "abstruse" subject of high school desks."