Abstract:

The society often has a negative view of chemistry. Some people consider it a science unhelpful, even dangerous, polluting, which harms society and that only takes place in laboratories and industries. Secondary High school students also believe that it is a complicated science in their educational curriculum. This set of prejudices have made increasingly fewer students choose the science itinerary at high school, and fewer still want to study Chemistry at University.

Given these factors, since 2004 the Department of Chemistry, Universitat de Girona promotes a series of activities aimed to increase the contact with students and teachers in Secondary Education.

This communication is the result of a series of projects designed to show the nice and amazing side of chemistry, as a step to encourage students to be interested in science and, more specifically, in chemistry. Fortunately, popular science by conducting experiments is experiencing a renaissance surprising and encouraging since the declaration of 2007 as the Year of Science. In Catalonia has also coincided with three basic facts that have contributed to this revival. First, the number of museums and exhibitions related to science has increased. Second, new books about popular science and recreational chemistry are published and can be found in bookstores. And third, new TV programs, which combine the show with science, are available in our channels.

The general objectives of Càtedra de Cultura Científica i Comunicació Digital (Chair of Scientific Culture and Digital Communication) of Universitat de Girona are to promote research and study at the intersection of the fields of Communication, Science and Information Technology. During this year, and helped with the activities carried out to celebrate the International Year of Chemistry (IYC 2011), we have been getting closer science to citizens and increase the interest in the young students.

The projects developed from the C4D can be divided into three groups. In one hand, we work in the edition of web pages of chemistry dissemination, the Chemist Itinerary through the city of Girona or the weblog catquimica.cat. The latter is the web site that we created the first of January of 2011 commemorating the celebration of the IYC 2011, where daily we published a post related to chemistry. The edition of web pages is complemented with the use of social networks to reach out directly to teenaged student. On the other hand, we have designed three exhibitions about the chemistry of sport, where we want to show the student the direct relationship between the advancement of science in the synthesis of new materials and the achievement of sports records and the increasing of safety in the practice of these sports.

Finally, we have several projects of science dissemination presented as conferences and demonstrations offered to schools and high schools. We offer conferences adapted to the level of the students. So, we are prepared to explain chemistry to students from 5 to 18 years old, always with the aim to encourage them to discover the funny and interesting side of science, and in particular of chemistry.

Keywords:

Popular, science, recreational, chemistry, communication, 2.0.