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How do girls and boys look at the science system and at the values of science, and what do they see? the questionnaire submitted to students also brought ethical and scientific policy issues to their attention. This is one of the ways in which they can be encouraged to take part as citizens in the scientific debate, enabling them to grasp the growing importance of the role of science and its close relations with society. The Pisa survey showed that the problem was not one of «giving a scientific explanation of the phenomena» but that our male and female students did not know how to «identify issues of a scientific nature» or «use evidence based on scientific data». For this reason it was deemed important to guide the youngsters in building competences based on scientific knowledge but also on the knowledge 'of science' (Mayer, 2008). Indeed, considerations on science, besides identifying its fascinating aspects and those that textbooks do not devote enough pages to, are an integral part of its topicality and of the process of understanding it. In the first group of questions of this first part of the questionnaire we also included, with the necessary adjustments, three questions from the survey carried out in norway on the Public Understanding of Science in 1999 (Kallerud, ramberg, 2002), that we believed were particularly suited to understanding and encouraging the youngsters' sensitivity on problematic issues of science and society. these questions (precaution principle, independence of the researchers, human values and scientific evidence), together with our own (speed of scientific progress, autonomy and responsibility, universality and sharing of knowledge, patentability, role of the market), were tested in the first surveys carried out (Valente, cerbara, 2006) and reused, with a few additions, in the current surveys. this enabled us to monitor the trend of the aforementioned data, confirming the hypotheses formulated and verified in the previous surveys and noting new elements that could lead us to further articulate, examine and change the formulated hypotheses, and, if necessary, bringing out new ones to test. the first question of the series was about the speed of scientific progress, towards which the interviewees adopted a cautious position: male and especially female students were in favour of a «less rapid development of the applications of scientific and technological discoveries, compensated by dwelling longer on the foreseeable results and risk factors», although, compared with the other surveys, a non negligible percentage of them was «in favour of a more rapid development of the applications of scientific and technological discoveries, since it is not possible to act in the full awareness of all the risk factors» (table 1). the youngest especially viewed speed as a resource as well as a concern and gave greater space to intermediate positions. However, as the previous surveys showed (Valente, cerbara, 2006, p. 111), the youngest males had greater difficulty in replying and, besides choosing the intermediate position more frequently, often answered with «I don't know». these surveys also confirmed the sensitivity towards the precaution principle. Most of the male and female students be lieved that «if the consequences that the modern technologies will have on human beings and the environment are uncertain, their use must be restricted». The high number of consensuses attributed to the precaution principle must be considered in relation with the themes treated - climate change and the water crisis. indeed, the precaution principle was more or less felt by the youngsters according to the environmental relevance of the context in which it was placed, as we were able to ascertain by comparing the three previous surveys on GMo, "electrosmog" and Space exploration (Valente, cerbara, 2006). regarding gender, in higher secondary schools there remained a slight prevalence of girls who were in favour of the precaution principle compared to their male classmates. Between the youngest male and female lower secondary school students involved in these surveys for the first time, gender difference did not appear, and, in fact, in the survey on climate change it was the girls who moved from unconditional support of the precaution principle towards an intermediate position («I tend to agree with both»). For the youngest we do not have a numerical representativity or historical series available to be able to say whether this phenomenon could foretell a new gender balance in future generations towards the sciences; this aspect will have to be taken into account in the following surveys and tests.

This contribution analyses premises and perspective of methodologies that facilitate the development of communication arenas fostering teachers and students to participate in the scientific debate with researchers and experts

The article deals with male and female students images of science and scientists, with their representation of the scientists' motivation, and their consideration of the scientists'work. The analysis showed a great distance between the degrees of social usefulness and of prestige accorded to the scientists' wok.

Applying Metaplan methodology to schools implies changing traditional point of view: the main goal is no longer the action but the knowledge acquired during the process. The starting hypothesis is that, through participation techniques of which the Metaplan and the OST are examples, schools can experience the social and collective nature of knowledge building. Inside the participatory methodology, emphasis is devoted to individual reflection, which is particularly significant precisely in the first stage of the cognitive process. Moving from theoretical considerations and practical experiences, the article explores development and conversion processes from tacit to explicit knowledge and vice versa inside students' groups.

The project Perception and Awareness of Science was carried out by CNR with the collaboration of the British Council and the Rosselli Foundation within the cycle of initiatives Ethics and Polemics, with the purpose of promoting a public debate between students, both at school and university, and experts on the scientific themes of general interest and to reduce the distance between youth and science. The communicative aspect of cience becomes particularly delicate if we are dealing with more than consolidated science but science in progress. This is the case in which the several scientific approaches, sometimes in conflict with each other, face one another and several cultural aspects interact with them. In this project we have tried to experiment with a path which is able to bring back the richness and complexity of the scientific debate and the themes and problems that have arisen from this within the public communication sphere of science. In doing so we wanted to avoid the tension between diverse opinions, sometimes conflicting, connatural to scientific thought apart from its evolution, being put aside, confined to debate between experts in the field. We believe, actually, that in order to simplify science communication it must be simplified in its language. Not in the removing of the critical, problematic and interdisciplinary components. Within this project three initiatives have been carried out, all on the themes of the future of science: The first one on the OGM, which took place in Bologna in 2002-2003; the second on the electro-magnetic waves (the so called electrosmog) in Rome in 2003-2004; the third on space exploration in Naples and Rome16 in 2004-2005. At this point in time an initiative on alternative medicine is underway, in collaboration with Roman universities and high schools. The two main phases foreseen of each initiative are: the structuring of the debate within the student groups and the completion of a survey on perceptions of science and its values. Each group coincides with a class and one or more professors play the role of a tutor. In the course of the project didactic material was given to all the classes, selected on the basis of different criteria but especially able to grant plurality of the scientific fonts. The speakers contacted for the day of the public debate were chosen because of the different points of view they hold on the subject and were able to present aspects of the different realities in Great Britain and in Italy. The groups under the guidance of their tutors went through the material given to them and started a study and discussion activity within their groups before taking part in the debate with the scientists, the experts in their field. The core of the debate within the groups constituted one of the elements characterizing the project: from the discussion and communication within the group, in fact, certain dynamics were established which gave birth to new knowledge like that described as tacit understanding or as 'collective wisdom' not necessarily expressed in a correct scientific language but such to allow the groups a more active participation in the debate with the experts. Before the beginning of the project and after the participation some questionnaires were handed out in order to collect the student's thoughts on the scientific themes, on the channels used to get closer to scientific information, the social political principles and the related scientific values involved. The questionnaires were dedicated for the major part to the comprehension of people's positions, especially young ones, on the nature and values of science more than understanding the position on this or that scientific fact or the acknowledgement of the general scientific level of knowledge of students. The analysis of the questionnaire given to all the groups before involving them in the project allowed us to understand the attitudes and the expectations towards science within articulated realities through the knowledge of the nature of modern science and its values, urging students to think over old and new university questions on scientific knowledge, the role of the market, the meaning to give to the precaution principle and the velocity of scientific progress. The results of the survey related to the first three initiatives of the project (OGM, electrosmog and space) are described in the three essays in the central part of the book. The analysis of the final questionnaires shows positive feedback from students. Participating in the project gave them more knowledge and, what is very interesting, more interest in science then undoubted faith.

La riflessione sul ruolo della società nella comunicazione della scienza e nella negoziazione di significati scientifici è l'aspetto centrale di questo contributo. Tra le critiche mosse alla nuova sociologia della scienza e della tecnica vi è il non aver adeguatamente considerato il ruolo attivo del pubblico nel processo culturale di ri-definizione della scienza e della tecnica e del loro uso (Flichy, 1996). Questo contributo si occupa proprio del pubblico, o meglio della società in rapporto con la scienza e la tecnica. Vengono soprattutto descritte le esperienze volte a cogliere sia la percezione della scienza-tecnica e della scienza-cultura, che lo spazio che sistemi di diffusione delle conoscenze riservano alla negoziazione di significati (quali valori della scienza e come contribuire al dibattito pubblico) e di usi (quali tecnologie e come utilizzarle al meglio). L'analisi degli aspetti legati alla percezione della scienza ed alla partecipazione al dibattito pubblico diviene tanto più centrale se consideriamo le suggestioni di chi ha evidenziato il nostro essere parte di esperimenti collettivi o sociotecnici, che superano i confini di laboratorio (Latour, 2001), coinvolgendo gruppi estesi, non definibili a priori e non consapevoli dell'esperimento in corso. Qualcosa di completamente diverso dal secentesco "testimone modesto" cui ha fatto riferimento Donna Haraway (2000), calato del suo ruolo ed investito della sacralità dell'esperimento scientifico al quale, prescelto, assisteva.