Conoscenza e consapevolezza della scienza

The chapter defines the concepts of knowledge and awareness of science in order to focus the contents and methodology of the scientific communication and participation experiences carried out within the project developed by CNR in collaboration with the British Council and the Rosselli Foundation. The debate which has characterized over twenty years of literature on the themes of public perception/comprehension/diffusion of science has often focused on the aspect of the knowledge alternatively validating or forging the well known deficit model. The discussion on the approach of many surveys on the public understanding of science which included the measuring of public knowledge levels occupied the most part of the debate and still, even in a more minor way, surveys are carried out to measure the level of a citizen's knowledge. The area related to knowledge and awareness themes has been covered by the carrying out of three surveys through the asking of certain specific questions Those related to knowledge were very limited as our interest is not to measure past knowledge but to activate a system of answers to questions of another kind. Yet it is possible to correlate the major or minor knowledge of the scientific subject dealt with in the project/process of communication and perception of science and other significant indicators. Also from the results of our surveys, in fact, the level of knowledge coming out does not invalidate that of the involvement. The area of analysis of knowledge which renders the locution utilized in literature of the knowledge quiz, has identified the level of knowledge of the phenomenon that the students had to face subsequently in a more profound way both in the classroom with the professors and during the public participation and debate event. As far as this area of surveys is concerned, we can affirm that the level of knowledge of the students on several subjects is relatively satisfactory. In a wide majority of cases, actually, the students had correctly answered the questions posed to them. The results that came out though, lead us to believe that the students, even within the area of sufficiently assimilated knowledge, are lacking in some areas, considering the elementary level of the questions posed. In particular we ascertain a deficiency in knowledge of the astronomical phenomenon even if it is a preferred subject amongst the youth. The range of correct answers varied for the OGM subject from 97% to 86% correct responses, electrosmog from 95% to 89% and space exploration from 95% to 74%. A number of questions were formulated in order to investigate the level of awareness on the three subjects. These were formulated on the basis of a number of assertions on which the students gave their evaluations on the basis of a likert scale. The results were based on different assertions, diverse motivational typologies and tendencies which characterize the different attitudes. We can distinguish: A) Motivation and inclination of social affiliation/sharing and positive attitudes which prefer the sharing of benefits and diffusion of results, correspond to this profile; B) Motivation and tendencies of individualistic interest/specificity type. Attitudes which privilege single interests in respect to the collective ones such as the economical or social, and accepting a high risk or difficulty in order to achieve an individual benefit or also collective but exclusively economical type, correspond to this profile. A general interpretation on the attitudes relative to the awareness that we can understand after the above mentioned different typologies points out a prevailing of an attitude more attentive to collectivity and community rather than the singular individual, more attentive to the ethical side or of general usefulness in research rather than the economical individualistic interest. Above all other factors there is a prevalence of interest and attention to health: both on the OGM and electrosmog theme, emerges above all the convinction that paying more attention to the protection of the collective well being rather than the interests of the singular individual in obtaining shared benefits rather than economical gain is important. The students declared that they are not open to accept the possible risks related to the use of bio technology or electro magnetic fields even if these may raise the economic competitiveness of a nation. On the contrary, they are open and prepared to give up certain benefits such as the use of certain restrictive measures in the usage of technology and in case of a non verified lack of danger even if this is certified by law. Within the field of space research the students tended to privilege the research focused on the study of our planet rather than space or extra terrestrial life, privileging the civilian aspects to the military ones. The involvement of citizens in the definition of goals and paths of research and the determination of the choices to be made becomes more requested and the traditional unidirectional flux (expert-non expert) is, or is asked to be, replaced by dialogue, the reciprocal effort, in one word, by participation. The levels of knowledge and awareness that the participating youth to our project had shown, even if sometimes with great differences in values, seems to point out that this involvement is both possible and realizable.