50-hour Pathways

For several years now, the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS, the National Institute of Health in Italy) has been committed to disseminating scientific knowledge in the health sector in schools through initiatives of various nature targeting teachers and students.
 
In this context, in 2016, the ISS joined the PCTO programme (Percorsi per le Competenze Trasversali e per l’Orientamento - ex Alternanza Scuola Lavoro – Educational Pathways for Transversal Skills and Students Orientation – formerly School-work educational programmes) by signing a Protocol of Understanding with the Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) with the strategic aim of drawing the world of research closer to the academic world and of disseminating knowledge on the subject of public health. Already in April-June 2016, the ISS developed a pilot project involving four Rome-based lyceums. Two 50-hour training cycles a year (in February and March) have been in place since 2017.
 
In order to meet the need for scientific training in schools and drawing on the multidisciplinary skills of the ISS, training courses were developed to focus on public health issues and disseminate science, whose leitmotif are the principles of Galilean scientific method.   
The Pathways developed were broken down into 4 thematic areas:

• Environment and health
• Communication and science
• Diseases: from biology to clinical
• Prevention and lifestyles

Each pathway is supplemented with a worksheet describing all the activities to be performed by students and the expected results. The training course is completed with a mandatory course on safety against the specific risks of the hosting Institute.