RESEt

RESEt project is born at Liceo Filzi, an high school in the Trentino region, located in the northeast of Italy. Liceo Filzi is a secondary school in the Trentino Alto Adige region (NorthEast of Italy). The population of students is between 14 to 18 and made mainly by girls (>85%). The school’s programs prepare students mainly for working or studying careers in the fields of education, health and social care and assistance.Hence, the primary educational focus of Liceo Filzi is on disciplines like philosophy and education, rather then STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Surveys of local and national school administrations report of forces that still affect our society and keep it far from a fair and full participation of womens in science careers. RESEt project involves a class of 22 students (20 girls, 2 boys) over the last three years of their secondary school curriculum (from October 2014 to June 2017). OBJECTIVE 1. Give the opportunity to students to live and experience of direct and onsite contact with scientists and the process of the scientific research 2. Bring the attention of students to data and scientific evidences of the process of global changes 3. To strength the initiative and independence of female students in order to let them be ready for a post diploma and career decisions more based on personal attitude and wishes than on social and cultural conditionings 4. Include the fundraising actions in the planned educational activities in order to use it for educational aims like: raising student motivation, improvement of their communication skills and self confidence, and observing closer the socio-cultural and productive entities of their community METHOD RESEt project aims at driving a whole class through a set of activities focusing mainly on planning, organizing, funding, making and communicating an authentic scientific polar expedition at the Svalbard islands (Arctic Ocean) in summer 2016. Students were very committed in the funding aspects in order to collect resources to (partially) fund the project. The expedition was entirely organized, planned, and directed by students. In Svalbard, students visited the main scientific facilities devoted to climate studies including those of Italian CNR (National Research Council) and they have been performed some environmental measurement using data-loggers. Students were even involved in the fundraising process to raise more than twenty thousand Euros needed to for covering the travel expenses. They adopted several methods to reach their goal like crowdfunding, small economic activities (helping other students in their homework, selling home made cakes, wrap-help in shops during christmas etc). RESEt students work very hard on the communication side too. The website is trilingual and very rich of contents. Till now they managed to gain attention from several national media (see press page link http://resetsvalbard.altervista.org/project/rassegna-stampa/ ) and they plan to make a professional film documentary that should tell the story of the project and the results achieved. RESEt project is made in collaboration wit PEI (Polar Educators International http://www.polareducator.org/) the worldwide community of polar teachers and educators fostering dialogue between educators and researchers