I T A L I A 2009 Intel ISEF Educator Academy

2 Introductions Piero Alberti Secretary General, FAST (Italian Federation of Scientific and Technical Associations ) Giulio Occhini Director, AICA (Italian Computer Society) Danny Arati Corporate Affairs Manager UK Online Education Programmes Manager, EMEA Intel

3 Educational Environment In total, there were 737K teachers employed in the public sector, with 7,7M K-12 pupils attending 14K schools. Compulsory school age is 6-16; schooling is organised in two cycles: the first cycle is compulsory and covers primary (elementary) and secondary (middle) school, the second cycle is optional and covers high school. For the latter, students can choose between “Liceo” (academic education), “Istituto” (professional education) – both choices provide access to university. Young people can also choose an apprenticeship (for students aged 15 or above), which allows to alternate between study and work.

4 The Italian educational system is fully centralised, with curricula established by the Ministry of Education and assessed by traditional examination criteria. The only exception is given by the subject of informatics, which is test driven, mostly based on the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL). Designed by CEPIS (Council of European Professional Informatics Societies), in Italy ECDL is managed by AICA. Professional and vocational schools curricula can be either centralised or decentralised (managed by the regions). Maths and science are taught from primary school onwards and are mandatory subjects throughout With regards to University entrance, only technical degrees require completion of maths and science during the second cycle. Educational Environment

5 Science Fairs The biggest fair in Italy (ISEF-affiliated) is the “Giovani e le Scienze” fair, held in Milan every April. In 2009, more than 200 students took part. The government is only marginally involved. For informatics, a Fair has been organised by AICA in 2004 in Genoa (European Cultural capital of that year). On that basis, AICA is now working to build an interactive computer fair, exploiting simulation techniques to approach maths, physics and biology.

6 Science Fairs The three biggest obstacles in Italy: - Very low government support -Lack of time and resources (projects involve a high degree of research and experimentation) -The Italian traditional humanistic mentality influences the set-up of the Science Fairs, which is not appealing to young people.