Publication Date:
2017-04-04
Description:
INGV is currently the largest European scientific institution dealing with Earth Sciences research and real-time
surveillance, early warning, and forecast activities in geophysics and volcanology. The Laboratorio Didattica e
Divulgazione Scientifica of INGV organizes every year rich educational and outreach activities with schools of
different levels and with general public to convey scientific knowledge and to promote research on science and
nature, focusing on volcanic and seismic hazard. The activities encompass a wide variety of formats, such as the
opening of our labs to schools for guided visits, contributing to national (e.g., the Italian “Week of the Scientific
Culture”, launched by the Ministry of Education and Research) and international (e.g., the European “Night of the
Researchers”) events, editing educational videos, creating multimedia tools also available on the Web. Moreover,
we contribute to expositions and science festivals organizing exhibitions with experiments, models, and exhibits
designed to teaching and learning geophysics. Finally, we offer guided visits to the control rooms run by our
Institute, which ensures the round-the-clock volcanic and seismic surveillance of the whole Italian territory.
During the Week of the Scientific Culture and the Night of the Researchers we opened our Institute to the general
public, in order to show our laboratories, to talk about new researches on Earth Sciences and to explain the
volcanic and seismic risk and the related surveillance activities. These initiatives are widely appreciated by the
community and we organized special events with the aim to inspire curiosity toward scientific research, and to
facilitate the approach of the general public to science and nature. The special event of the 2010 programmes
was a scientific-musical format: Seismic waves and acoustic waves, from earthquake to music. The aim of this
project was to involve the public in scientific events offering happening where the scientific language is mediate
through the language of the music. In this way, scientific phenomenon are brought in using emotion, making
easier the understanding of the scientific themes. The format started with short lectures on earthquake and seismic
wave propagation to move on the comparison between the seismic waves and the acoustic waves. We used
seismograms, acoustic instruments, the voice, and the Earth sounds to explain the relation between earthquake
waves and music. The scientific talks were organized to create a trail that, through emotion and curiosity, guides
the public to the discovery and comprehension of the scientific phenomenon. The final part of the event was
devoted to classical/jazz/blues live concerts performed by groups and ensembles, some of them arranged by INGV
researchers. As a general result, thanks to this project we joined science and community, merging the INGV
mission with the public expectation. This scientific-musical format represented an experimental outreach project,
new, stimulating, and appreciated by the audience that can be used as good practice of scientific divulgation.
Description:
Published
Description:
Vienna- Austria
Description:
5.9. Formazione e informazione
Description:
open
Keywords:
Seismic waves
;
earthquake
;
05. General::05.03. Educational, History of Science, Public Issues::05.03.99. General or miscellaneous
Repository Name:
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
Type:
Poster session
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