A day at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia in Rome, Italy seen from the kids point of view

The Laboratorio di Didattica e Divulgazione Scientifica Group of the INGV organizes every year intense educational and outreach activities with schools of different grades. The visit to the scientific laboratories of the INGV center of Rome represents the earliest and the most continuous project started about 10 years ago. During these years the INGV center was visited by more than 20,000 students. The researchers and the technicians of the INGV receive with competence and enthusiasm the students in order to transfer scientific knowledge and enthusiasm for scientific research, science and nature. Since Italy is a place prone to seismic and volcanic activities our lessons focalize in particular on causes of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and how to behave properly during these events. This approach derived from the consciousness that preparedness is the best way to live with and to mitigate natural hazards. The visit consists of a theoretical lesson in a conference hall supported by multimedia tools, and a practical experiences based on exhibitions and hands-on experiments focused on earthquakes, plate tectonics and the inner structure of the Earth. A special experience is the visit to the control room of the INGV National Seismic Surveillance where the students can see in real time the seismic activity and how it is important its continuous monitoring 24-hours a day all year round. In the 2007-2008 scholastic year about 50 classes for more than 2,500 students and their teachers interacted with about 40 scientists. For some of the classes the visit gave the start to independent and original work. This is the case of a IVth primary school class that once back to the desk and encouraged by the teachers resumed their impressions and what their better grasped. The result is a "book" realized like a diary from their original drawings with a final section devoted to a research work they have independently done on volcanoes. The kids with a scientifically correct approach produced a tool particularly fruitful for other students due to the common language used. We made these products available to other schools. In fact, we think that in this way students can better appreciate and comprehend subjects sometimes considered "tricky" and "boring".