CONNECTING HIGH SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY THROUGH SCIENCE POPULARIZATION

A strong connection between university and secondary school is one of the desirable university engagements with its neighboring community. Moreover, activities linking the teaching, research, and knowledge resources of the university with the future university students are encouraged owing to the growing concern on the lack of Science students. Indeed, promotion of Science education is reinforced when students from other levels of the educational system visit the university campus, and attend science exhibitions or talks.
To this aim, we have developed a pilot project in which students close to the transition from school to university visit different facilities on campus and attend an engaging science seminar in the Physics Department. The first science popularization seminar prepared in this project has consisted in a presentation about optical illusions, visual phenomena and the eye.
We understand this project as a way to strengthen links between science departments and preuniversity schools. It also provides scope for educational cooperation, can facilitate career guidance, and broadens students’ horizons to more current research and ideas.
The expectations and interests of the students before the visit, and their impressions afterwards, have been gathered as feedback information for the project. Most of the students show a very favorable opinion about their experience at the university.